The Phantoms Among Us
by AsculaRiddle
Summary: 13 year old Danny Fenton was born quirkless but, through an accident with a faulty machine his parents built, he now has more quirks than anyone he's ever met! By day he and his two best friends are normal school kids, but by night are vigilantes slowly gaining a reputation on the streets of Japan. (Warning, some explicit language, occasional bloody injuries, and bullying.)
1. Chapter 1

__Young Danny Phantom __

__He was just 13 __

__When his parents a very __

__Dangerous machine __

__It was meant to understand __

__The quirks unseen __

__When it didn't quite work __

__His parents just quit __

__So Danny took a look __

__Inside of it __

__There was a great big flash __

__Everything changed __

__His molecules got all rearranged. __

__When he first woke up realized __

__He had snow white hair and __

__glowing green eyes. __

__He could walk through walls __

__Disappear and fly __

__He was much more unique than the other guys __

__It was then that he knew what he had to do __

__He had to stop all the villains that were __

__Coming to __

__He's here to fight for me and you __

__Danny Fenton, the son of an American man and Japanese woman. They moved to Japan when Danny was three. The parents, Jack and Yurei Fenton. Jack's quirk is a minor strength and size enhancer (mutant) while Yurei has an intelligence booster. Jazz, Danny's older sister, also has an intelligence boosting quirk. Danny, sadly, was born quirkless. The Fenton's are well known Quirk researchers, who work with heroes and citizens alike to learn about control or improving their powers. __

__Right around the time Danny turned thirteen, there was a lab accident and he was given the abilities from DNA samples stockpiled in the machine. __

Right now, however, Danny was to busy trying to hide his intangible arm to worry about how he got his powers. His mother hovered over a machine that was supposed to detect mutation type quirks. Jazz hid behind her book, breakfast left forgotten as she tried to dodge the sparks coming off the machine.

"Two more days and it'll be finished!" Yurei said cheerfully. Jack, with his selective hearing, practically jumped for joy and snatched it out of her hands. Jazz looked at them in disgust and held her book up higher in front of her face.

"It's done?! Great!" He switched it on. Since they'd programmed it to not detect Jack, mostly because it would be distracting during test runs, the machine picked up Danny instead. Both parents slowly made their way forward while Danny hid his arm and backed into a wall.

_"___Mutation type straight ahead-" __the machine said.

"Well this can't be right… there must be a bug in the system!" Yurei said, taking back the machine. She began taking the back of it apart while Danny's face fell.

"Actually, there's something I need to tell you guys-"

"You don't need to tell them anything, Danny!" Jazz finally spoke up, standing from her spot and making her way over to stand between him and his parents. "Danny is at a very impressionable age and you two using him like a labrat isn't going to help any! Come on, little brother, I'll walk you to school." Danny sometimes forgot the difference between his sister's intelligence and his mother's. While Yurei had chosen to focus all her mind on machines and quirks, Jazz had learned everything she could on psychology and child development. The two siblings had been best friends until Danny was ten and started avoiding his family.

It's not that the boy hated them or anything, it's just that they are a reminder. He'd been quirkless, bullied at school for it… treated like he was worthless. Now, even though he has powers (though, admittedly, difficult to control) he couldn't tell them. If they found out a machine they built had given him powers… what would happen to him? Lab rat? Science experiment? Most kids his age worried about grades, not about being dissected by white coats- I mean scientists…

Anyways, there were always two people that Danny could rely on. The only two people in all the world besides him that knew about his strange quirks.

Sam Manson, who was also a half American who came to Japan when she was three, and Izuku Midoriya. Izuku was also quirkless, though he had a habit similar to Jazz, which made them think maybe he did have an intelligence quirk. Mumbling aloud because he can't contain it all in his head. Jazz had given him a few pointers to help break the habit that she'd done when she was younger. It helped a little bit.

Sam __did __have a quirk, however. She had telepathy and could hold conversations with people completely with her power. There was one condition, though, and that was that she couldn't read people's minds unless somebody let her. For Danny it felt like a small push. Instinctively, you put up a wall against it, but if you know what's going on you can drop the wall and let her in. She also had the ability to sense people's minds and emotions, but she usually tried to block it out.

Izuku's green hair caught Danny's sight and the boys hurried to greet each other. The school year would be more fun than the year before since the school finally decided to stop splitting up the girls and boys. Danny, Izuku, and Sam finally got to have all their classes together. Well, mostly.

Sam smiled as they greeted each other. She was really pushing against the dress code. Her black hair, which was, honestly, probably dyed, was cut shorter and mostly put back into a ponytail so that her earrings would show. While the uniform itself was just a black button up shirt and black pants for boys and long skirt for girls, she'd left the shirt unbuttoned to show off a black and purple half shirt underneath. She also wore purple leggings and black combat boots. Her purple lipstick matched her eyes.

Danny got a bad feeling she was gonna get in trouble for the outfit.

Danny noticed an angry- looking teacher making his way over. He recognized the teacher as their homeroom teacher, though they had yet to learn his name since there hadn't been any classes. He was obviously angry with Sam's outfit. A small nudge at Danny's mind made him open up to the telepath.

" __Yo, Danny, I'm gonna get in trouble I bet-" __

_"___No, it's fine, just cover me for a moment." __

Danny hid around the corner of the building, changing as soon as he was out of everybody's sight. A black and white halo surrounded his torso, expanding up and down over his head and under his feet. His black hair turned white, blue eyes turned to a glowing green, and his school uniform disappeared in exchange for a black jumpsuit with white boots, gloves, collar, and belt. He'd noticed a few weeks ago, with help from Izuku's continuous questions, that if he attached something to his uniform and then turn back, the item would still be there. A white symbol was on his chest, courtesy of Sam's creativity.

He listened to the conversation between the teacher and Sam for a second, then turned invisible and flew over. It was new ability he'd learned thanks to Izuku's nagging.

Danny entered the teacher's body, immediately hating it. Overshadowing (as Izuku dubbed it) let him take temporary control over people. There was a tell, of course, and the teacher's eyes glowed green, but imprinting thoughts into the man was easier than dealing with a grumpy Sam.

"I mean, okay… your outfit isn't __that __bad, dress code wise," the teacher was forced to say. Seeing as he didn't fight against Danny, he must not have cared as much as previously thought. The words made since in the teachers mind, and Danny exited the body before it walked away.

Sam smiled. Her black choker which had been a gift from Danny for her birthday, had been taken off anyways. Jewelry was against the rules, so she decided not to push it.

"Ready to go?" Izuku said, fidgeting with something on his tablet. Sam had bought it for him right after Danny got his powers. All three kids headed inside, and Izuku didn't look up from his device until they were near the class. "Hey, Danny, y-you should look out for cameras more. You know they've got them all over the school."

Danny groaned, face palming. "I'm sorry, I didn't even think about that. Did you get it off?" Izuku smiled and nodded, motioning towards the device in his hands.


	2. Chapter 2:Rise to the Occasion

_*** the star shows when somebody speaks in English**_

The school day went by quick and painlessly. Homework wouldn't be given out until a couple days later since it was the first day. Right now they were just getting their books, learning the rules… you know, boring, useless stuff. Danny told Izuku some of the new projects his parents were working on. Among them was a newer, more reliable quirk suppressants. They had gotten some permission from some pro hero that had an erasure quirk.

"ERASURE!? OH MY GOD IS IT-"

"Izuku stop yelling," Danny interrupted. Not surprisingly, Izuku had begun digging through his backpack and pulled out his tablet. He'd started copying his hero analysis inside after writing things in his notebook. His tablet was like a backup, and most of the stuff he wrote was coded so only the three of them could read it.

"Is it Eraserhead? The Erasure Hero? He's underground, so I-I'd be surprised if your parents managed to convince him to help."

"The hero agreed on the condition that they never share who he was. I'm not even sure if they met in person. I think that Nezu, whoever that is-"

"-He's the principal of UA."

"Okay. Well, I think he was the organizer of everything. He was the one who talked to them, and any samples my parents wanted were brought to them by somebody else. It was… rather complicated, to be honest."

"Hey, you said they were working on some sort of quirk tracker, weren't they?" Sam asked as they neared Danny's home. The building was three stories tall with a giant satellite dish and metal building stacked on top. Fenton works, as the building's sign named it, was both a home and a business. They made a lot of money, but most of it was wasted on projects that didn't work. They had an entire shed in their backyard filled with useless junk.

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you think it could be used to track specific quirks?" Sam looked towards Izuku, who stared at the ground in thought. He mumbled to himself incoherently, trying to figure it out. He didn't stop until he ran into the front door of the home. He sputtered, holding his nose.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked while Danny struggled not to laugh. Izuku nodded, laughing softly at himself. As soon as they entered the house, they turned towards the living room. Jack was doing something… weird in the room. He was shaking a small tube like a can of hairspray. It was small, about the length of Danny's hand and about two inches thick.

* "Um… whatcha doing dad?" Danny said. Izuku looked at the roof, repeating the words to himself softly. Danny and Sam had both taught him a lot of english through the years since both their father's spoke only in that language.

* "This damn Jack o' Nine Tails won't-"

Before he could finish, a rope shot out of the front of it. Nine small claws unraveled and stuck to the ceiling light. An electrical current blew up the lightbulbs and stuck them all in complete darkness.

"This is why I always tell you to use natural light… from the windows…" Sam grumbled. Light returned when a window was opened. Jack tugged at the Jack o' Nine Tails, only to pull the entire light down on accident.

"Oh well, in the shed you go! Danny! Put this in the shed, would you?"

Jack left the kids to clean up the mess. While Danny and Sam cleaned up the glass, while wearing rubber gloves of course, Izuku sat on the couch and took the machine apart. He took the weird sticker of Jack's face off, then hurried to fix a few things.

"What are you doing, Izuku?" Danny sighed.

"I'm fixing it, there's just a small problem, should be easily remedied."

Once everything was cleaned and Danny wrote a note that the light would have to be fixed, the kids hurried up to his room. It was a simple bedroom. A bed, a bookshelf, a dresser, and a desk. There was also a beanbag chair next to the bed, which Sam always claimed as soon as they entered. Izuku rolled the desk chair closer to the bed, were Danny was sitting.

"So, the plan?" Danny asked, taking the tablet already being handed to him. There was a file already on the screen. A mugshot of a woman with slicked back white hair. She was grinning at the camera with wild eyes.

"Her name is Ranch Iredi, weird name, and her quirk is a strength enhancer. Her strength comes from the food she eats." Danny could kind of tell. The woman was large. Not like fat, but just… big. "Her villain name is Lunch Lady, for some reason. She doesn't ever seem to have any motive other than to terrorize people, namely children. She's never harmed anybody, but she has demolished a few buildings."

"You know where she's gonna be?"

"Yeah. She escaped from custody with a few buddies." Izuku took the tablet back and messed with it, then turned it around to show the other two. Two other people. "N-none of them are all that powerful, and they haven't worked together before, so I'm pretty sure t-they all decided to just escape together. Something about their quirks made the regular quirk suppressants less effective."

One man was dressed as a dock worker and was pouting, the other had dark brown hair and a bored expression.

"How'd they escape?" Sam asked. She moved from her spot to sit beside Danny. Their shoulders touched and Sam shivered.

"Well, the Box Man, or Bokku Suman, has weak telekinesis, so the quirk suppressants wore off faster-"

"Wait, I thought suppressants wore off stronger quirks faster…" Danny asked, confused.

"There are suppressants f-for different types of quirks. Su-some are meant for stronger quirks, some are meant for weaker ones. T-there was a safety added into the stronger ones back a few years ago when a villain died because of somebody overe-estimating his quirk. If you give somebody with a weak quirk a suppressant for powerful ones, then it would be like an overdose. So, nowadays, suppressants sorta… disappear or fade if the quirk is weaker than it should be. A-amazing in my opinion, though r-really flawed."

"So, all three of them escaped because of this flaw and are now out reeking havoc?"

"Um, not yet. Lunch Lady only works at night, and the Box guy always attacks shipping companies. The brown haired guy is only a lowly drug dealer. His name is Kami Henka, His quirk is nothing, just the ability to change his hair length and color."

"I wish I could do that," Sam grumbled, pulling a lock of her hair forward to stare at it. Izuku smiled at her.

"You can, obviously, it just takes half an hour longer than him."

Sam snorted as Danny read the files. "You know, I'm not entirely sure these guys can be considered villains… more like wannabes. Maybe it's not worth the trouble trying to catch them."

Izuku looked surprised, then a little sad. "Why do you say that? They like to create chaos, even if they don't harm people. Yeah, it's easy, but th-that's why you should! It's easy for you but not some other heroes, you know?"

Danny nodded.

"Tonight then. We should go down to the lab and work out how to use that Jack o' Nine Tails, you guys might need it. Actually, we should really change that name. Maybe just tails?"

Sam nodded, Izuku stared at the weapon like it held the secrets of the universe.

Danny changed his from and grabbed his friends, turning them all invisible and dropping them down through the floors until they stood in the lab. He turned switched on the lights.

"Really? You had to use your powers?"

"If my parents saw us come down they would question what we were doing." Danny shrugged. "And, besides, it's good practice, practice we all know I need. I'm still not good at controlling my powers. Just this morning my arm turned intangible and I nearly blew everything! I don't want to think about what my parents would do if they found out I was a vigilante."

Izuku sat on the floor in the middle of the room and began messing with his tablet, trying to track down the villains. Meanwhile, Danny practiced with his flying and turning intangible at will. While intangible he's nearly invisible, though you can still see his eyes and some sorta shadow of his clothes. He can turn completely invisible as well, and often uses it to escape heroes who nearly see him.

"Are those quirk suppressors your parents are working on nearly finished." Sam asked.

"They finished, I think. At least with the first attempt. They sent them to Nezu, who is getting them tested further. Nezu and my parents get along well, I guess?"

Sam tried the Nine Tails a couple times but decided to instead dig around a box of forgotten trinkets. They were mostly things that the Fentons had built but decided weren't useful enough or wouldn't sell well. She eventually found a small lipstick. She looked confused at first, then surprised when she pulled the lid off and found it was almost the same shade as her own. Danny chuckled nervously and looked away.

"I asked my parents to make that. I told them they'd never be able to make your lipstick cooler than it already was. Dad took it as a challenge. I'd actually been wondering where that went, it went missing last week before I could take it."

"What's it do?"

"There are two buttons on either side, press them and a beam shoots out. It works like a sort of taser that works from a larger distance. If the lid is on it won't work though."

Sam smiled and stuck the lipstick into the pocket of her skirt. Izuku ended up claiming the Nine Tails. Both of them used a sharpie to color out the Fenton stamp.

Sam and Izuku stayed the night, but none of them really slept much. In bed by five, out of the house by midnight. With Sam's powerful telepathy, all three of them could have conversations mentally from blocks away.

"This'll be good," Danny grinned, watching as the lunch lady and the box man held a conversation right outside a warehouse.


	3. Chapter 3: Suit up

**Chapter Text**

Sam and Izuku sat at the top of a roof, watching through Fenton Binoculars as Lunch Lady and the Box Man head inside. They had some sort of argument, yet hadn't raised their voices in the slightest. Danny was down there, already in his ghost form. He looked… weird through the binoculars. Sort of semi-transparent. He seemed to flicker, probably because of how little control he had over his powers still.

_"___Danny, go now, they are on the other side of the warehouse." __Sam told telepathically.

Danny did as he was told and was soon sliding through a wall invisible. Lunch Lady and the Box Man were busy using their quirk to move boxes with desirable contents into a small moving truck.

"Hey! I don't think those belong to you!" Danny yelled. He stayed invisible, watching the two villains drop everything to try and find him instead. The teen snickered, but stopped and yelped when the Box Man used his powers to throw him through the air and into a wall.

_"___Danny?! Danny are you alright?!" __Sam's startled voice piped up in his head. He groaned and stood up, pulling a long chain off the ground as he did so. Lunch Lady somehow found a crowbar and rushed over to try and clober him with it.

"Seriously? A crowbar?" he turned intangible and the villain passed right through him. He would've laughed, but Box Man through him through the air and into a shelf.

_"___Danny you need to leave-" __

_"___I'm fine-" __

_"___DANNY YOU NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW!" __Izuku cried. The voice was so loud it startled Danny into turning invisible. Good thing, too, because he finally noticed what had scared his friends so badly. Eraserhead stood on the roof, staring around at the villains. Luckily, Danny was hidden by the shelf so the hero couldn't see him.

Danny disappeared through the floor and hurried to where his friends were waiting. They continued watching through the binoculars, even after he'd landed to sit next to them. He didn't need any gadgets to be able to watch the hero do his work. It took less than a minute for him to knock out the two villains. As he exited the building, his head snapped up at them, startling them all and causing them to tumble backwards.

"We need to go," Izuku said, standing up. He silently thanked Sam for making him wear a black hat that matched her's. Both of them also wore a bandana over their mouths to make up for the masks they had yet to finish.

Sam and Izuku wrapped their arms around Danny, turning invisible right as Eraserhead somehow flung himself onto the roof of the building. He looked around, eyes practically glowing red as he tried to find the kids. Danny silently turned them intangible and they all slipped through the ground.

With the villains caught for the night, they all returned to Danny's home and sat in the lab quietly. Danny and Sam helped Izuku as much as possible, but, for the most part, stayed out of his way. Danny looked through files on the tablet for any other villains that needed to be caught, Sam worked on modifying some of Yurei's old jumpsuits so that they would better suit her and Izuku when they went out. Izuku worked on masks for him and Sam. Time seemed to pass slowly, but soon Sam held up her outfit proudly. Izuku finished his work on the gas masks soon after.

Sam's outfit was a half shirt with Danny's symbol on her chest. The shirt and pants were a dark purple. Her mask was purple as well, and the eyes bulged slightly with a thick black one way glass. The mask was metal, but not that thick. Izuku managed to make it filter out impurities like a gasmask, just not as strong as his own. She wore a black leather coat over it that fell all the way to her knees. Her black boots stayed, and a pair of black gloves joined.

Izuku's mask was a gas mask with a smile painted on. He wore a hat that was, technically, a helmet that clipped under his chin. Rabbit ears that flopped only slightly sat on his head. He would later confess that they could pick up and record things then send them to his tablet or phone. His jumpsuit was green and the sleeves cut off at the elbows. He had a belt around his waist that held pouches and a belt from his left shoulder to his right waist to put weapons. He had black boots, courtesy of Sam's wallet, and black gloves. Danny's symbol sat on his chest.

Around five in the morning they all snuck back to Danny's room and fell asleep on the mess of sheets and sleeping bags they usually piled on the floor as a giant bed. For now, the suits sat in Sam's bag.


	4. Chapter 4: bully

Bakugou is a bully.

Bakugou is the worst bully in the entire school.

Danny stood between him and Izuku, something he'd started doing years ago. All it does is make the bully angrier, attacking him as well, but by the time he finished beating Danny to a pulp, he was over his anger and ignored Izuku besides a few venomous words spit towards him.

Danny held an ice pack to his black and swollen eye. Izuku and Sam both draped an arm over him, guiding the boy through the streets so he didn't run into something. For the past fifteen minutes they'd been relying on Sam's quirk since Danny's lip was fat and painful to move.

_"___Remind me again why you two refuse to speak to an adult about this?" __Sam snarled.

_"___You know they won't do anything. Nobody ever does." __Izuku wrapped his free arm around his torso, wincing at the pain. He would have a gnarly bruise for sure, but hopefully it would be at least a little better before his training session with Sam later that day.

_"___I'll be fine, it's just a few bruises," __Danny sighed and winced. His ribs hurt… but that could've been from that shelf falling on him too. It was possible he had a concussion, but they all knew not to take him to the hospital. His powers activating at random times would give him away.

As usual, the three kids were heading to Fenton Works after school. They would head off to "work" earlier than usual since it was a friday and they had no school the next day.

_"___What about your parents?" __

_"___Gone to talk with Nezu or whoever about those quirk suppressants." __

Danny left a note on his nightstand saying he was going to an arcade with his friends, then they all hurried to get changed (except for Danny, who just put on a simple black gasmask that Izuku handed him).

Funnily, the gas mask on Danny's face turned white when he transformed. It was...odd. He wasn't expecting the item to transform with him, seeing as his usual clothes just...disappear, along with any item he was carrying.

"Maybe it's because you __wanted __to keep it on?" Izuku said, shrugging.

They were ready to go soon, but Danny held the ice pack to his eye even as they flew through the air and landed on a building near the more rundown part of the city. On the days Izuku couldn't find a specific villain to chase after, they would just patrol the areas with less heroes.

Not even five minutes into patrol, Danny was inside a gas station, taking down a robber armed with only a gun. Not so much a villain as a moron- he wasn't even wearing a mask! The employees thanked Danny before he disappeared from sight.

Eraserhead stared at the file in his hands. It wasn't much, but it was useful. The kids he'd seen during his little recapturing were definitely the vigilantes that popped up about three months ago. They were difficult to find, especially the two that seemed to work from the sidelines. Inviso-Bill, as the internet dubbed him, looked no older than fourteen. His snow white hair and glowing green eyes, along with the long list of powers, should've made it easy to track him down. Whoever the kid was, he wasn't in any records.

The hero let out a long groan. Just his luck, huh? A new school year, one with a class that he already knew would be troublesome, and he was tracking down a middle schooler in his free time. An extremely powerful one at that.

Despite his annoyance, he couldn't help but worry about the boy. The hero knew that the kid, whoever he was, was inexperienced. How many times did that boy get injured while out fighting villains? The only thing that eased Eraserhead's mind was that many heroes were told about the vigilante. A couple others, like Kamui Woods, were working to find the vigilante. They didn't want to arrest the boy… they wanted to help him.

If only Danny knew that.


	5. Chapter 5: Dance Dance Revolution

Only a week after school's started and Danny is already getting into trouble.

So, okay, I'll try my best to explain it as simply as possible. (*clears throat*)

"Danny lost his pants!" Somebody in the crowd yelled.

There you have it.

Sam and Izuku moved to stand in front of their friend as he pulled his pants back up. He didn't have a belt, though he probably should've, so his pants fell down every time his powers activated accidently. Their homeroom teacher pushed through the crowd and glared down at Danny, who was, at this moment, holding his pants to make sure they didn't fall again.

"Third time this year, Danny Fenton, I think it's about time I talk to your parents." Sam scowled, but the teacher didn't seem to notice… or maybe he didn't care. Danny just nodded and stared at the ground, trying not to lose his temper.

The teacher left in a hurry, tossing a belt to Danny. No doubt the teacher had been waiting for Danny to lose his pants again.

_"___You alright Danny?" __

Danny nodded to Sam's invisible question before looping the belt and tightening it as much as possible. As they hurried through the school to class, Sam stopped them and pointed out a small flier on the bulletin board.

"A 'back-to-school-bash'? Who comes up with these names?" Danny laughed and took a quick picture of it on his phone. It wasn't really a formal party, but there would be music and entertainment. You didn't need to go as a couple, either, though it would be strange if you didn't. This dance was the first one the school ever had, so it was probably because they now let the two genders interact.

"You guys got anybody you want to ask?" Sam said. Her voice was more cheerful than usual.

"You wanna go with me?" Danny asked. He hoped she didn't realize he asked because he didn't know any other girls. She smiled.

"Sure! How about you, Izuku?"

"Oh, uh, I'm not… I don't know for sure…"

"How about Paulina?" Danny shrugged. He'd had a crush on her during the summer, but never got the chance to talk to her. The young girl and long dark hair and sea green eyes. She usually didn't follow dress code either, from the looks of it. Makeup, pink hair pins, and the ear piercings were all against the rules, but nobody cared. The girl didn't look particularly japanese, and her accent made her sound like she was from Mexico or something. Her quirk, though not the most powerful, gave her the ability to change her body slightly. Got a zit? Not any more! Not happy with your weight? Buh bye fat! Danny didn't think it was healthy how skinny the girl kept herself.

Izuku seemed like he was interested in Paulina though, which was strange. Izuku had never been the type to develop crushes. During their lunch break, the boy made his way to where she was sitting under a tree.

"Heya, Paulina, I just wanted to, uh, s-say hello!"

"Uh, hello?"

Izuku shuffled closer, only to trip over his own feet.

"Please don't say you've fallen for me, that was __soooo__ last year."

"Yeah, uh, I mean no! Uh, I mean-" Izuku stammered on with an apology, but Paulina looked more amused than anything.

"You must be the stuttering boy I've been hearing so much about. Bakugou says you're quirkless, but I'd say your the weirdest one at school!"

Sam glared at Paulina before marching her way over. "Cudos Izuku, you've set an all knew record for drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool." "Nuh-uh there is no way you just called me shallow- did you?!"

Danny laughed and stood on the other side of their embarrassed friend. "If you mean, does she think she could stand in a puddle full of you and not get her feet wet… then yes. Yes, she did."

They started pulling Izuku away.

"Shallow? I am not shallow!"

Sam and Danny did their best to cheer Izuku up, including sneaking away from school for the rest of their break to watch a villain battle not far away. It seemed to work, though Izuku had trouble figuring out exactly what the villain's quirk was. It was a young woman that could breathe fire and had large scaled wings. She didn't really steal anything or hurt any one, she just started spitting her bright blue flames into the air. She escaped the heroes without a scratch.

"We'll see you later," Danny said, dropping Izuku near his classroom. They all went separate ways.

"You who! Izuku!" Paulina skipped up to the fourteen year old with her book in hand.

"P-Paulina, hi!" Izuku fiddled with his book, looking anywhere but the girl.

"So I got the feeling that you wanted to talk with me about something earlier before were so rudely interrupted."

Izuku looked at her in surprise. "I, uh, I was going to ask if… I mean, only if you want to- uh-"

"Would you go to the school dance with me?"

The boy blinked at her a couple times, his brain not processing what she'd said. Suddenly he smiled widely. "Yes! But, uh, aren't the boys supposed to ask?"

"Just don't tell anybody," Paulina said, holding a finger over her mouth. "Shhh."


	6. Chapter 6:Overshadow

Danny shuffled his feet. The teacher wanted to talk to his father, Jack, but Danny couldn't find a way to break the bad news to his already frustrated father. He was busy messing with a fishing line, one that was supposed to neutralize quirks when it wrapped around somebody. The only problem, however, was that Jack kept getting tangled up in the glowing grey line.

*"Man, this has got to be the most frustrating thing ever! I swear, whoever brings me bad news will-"

"Nothing here! No bad news!" Danny yelped, hiding the slip from his teacher behind his back. Jack looked at him strangely. Luckily, Jack was a moron.

"Well then, I'll be getting back to- ugh- untangling myself!" Jack pulled at the line holding his wrists hostage. After a second of watching his father struggle, Danny reached over and helped. Jack celebrated his freedom and began spooling the line.

"Wait a minute…" Danny mumbled to himself. His face lit up and he stepped behind his father.

When he was sure his father wouldn't see, the boy turned intangible and overshadowed Jack.

"Come on, dad, my teacher needs to talk to us!"

Sam and Izuku didn't know what to say the next day when Danny tried to explain his predicament.

*"So, wait, you overshadowed your father… used that power to get your teacher off your back, then accidently set your father up to chaperone the school dance? Dude, how do you even mess up that badly?" Sam snorted. Izuku mumbled up towards the sky as he quickly deciphered everything she said.

* "Yeah, but the worst part, my dad doesn't even know! I don't know what to tell him!" Danny stabbed at his food with one hand and scratched the back of his head with the other. Izuku continued staring at the sky.

* "What if… you told him that… you volunteered him as the… what's the word?" * "Chaperone. And yeah, that'll work," Danny nodded as he spoke. He scarfed down his food when he saw Bakugou walking towards them. * "Blasty, twelve 'o clock."

Sam snorted and looked Izuku's watch as the boy looked over his shoulder at a raging Bakugou. "That's not… nevermind."

The three of them hurried to leave the table and head back inside, practically being chased by the explosive bully the entire way. Insults were thrown, the sound of small explosives followed them for a while, but, ultimately, the kids escaped unscathed.

"So, you and Paulina?" Danny teased, nudging Izuku's shoulder with his own. Izuku blushed and hid his face.

"I- It's not- we're just going to the dance! Uh-"

"I'm just teasing you, I know she's not… your type. You'll have fun at the dance though, right?"

Izuku nodded excitedly. It would be his first dance too, and he was exceptionally awkward around people his age.

Eraserhead searched through all the security footage that had ever been taken of the vigilante. ten tapes… THAT'S IT?!

All of them were from about three months ago, and they are only of Inviso-Bill, and only captured him for a few seconds while he was running or flying. After about a week into the vigilante's debut, all security cameras would be shut off as he flew into or appeared in a building or alleyway. Eraserhead figured it had to be the other boy, one of the sidekicks, who, when spotted, had his nose buried in a tablet or phone.

"So, any news?" Tsukauchi, the detective in charge of this case, asked as Eraserhead rewound and rewatched a short section with the boy flying past a camera. He rewound it again slightly and paused it. The boys legs were gone, replaced by a long, slightly transparent tail.

"Another quirk? You've gotta be kidding me…" The detective sighed and began rubbing his eyes.

"That's, what, five now?" Eraserhead scowled at the screen. Invisibility, enhanced strength and speed, intangibility, flight, and, now, his legs seem to turn into a tail if he goes fast enough? Maybe it was a side effect of his other powers?

"So… five quirks? Or maybe just two and we didn't- maybe we misunderstood? Teleportation and flight, that could work-" The detective sounded hopeful, so much so that the hero almost felt bad about stomping on it. Almost.

"That doesn't explain the time during when he disappears and reappears. Or the… tail."

The detective spit out a few other theories that would prove he didn't have more than one quirk, but each was disproven. It was obvious that the detective sincerely hoped that the boy didn't actually have five quirks.

He was right, technically, since the heroes didn't know about the overshadowing.


	7. Chapter 7: Spiders and Dragons

Danny and Sam stand at the entrance to a store with their mouths agape. It was giant, and the formal clothing inside looked… intimidating.

"Having trouble little listeners?" A man passing by asked. His own arms were full of bags from various stores.

"Nah, we just… aren't sure if it's necessary." Sam gulped and looked back inside. The bright colors were nothing she would wear. If she stood in the store, she'd stand out like a sore thumb in the black and dark purples she wore. The man, however, wouldn't look so strange with his bright, cheery colors. He looked like the human form of a ball of sunshine. He laughed, his blond haired bun bouncing slightly.

"Well, hey, what's the occasion, I'm sure they can help you!"

"It's a school dance-" Danny broke off when another man caught up with the ball of sunshine. The two adults seemed like opposites, light and dark, happy and gloomy, sunshine and storm clouds.

It was annoying, really, that both kids recognized the newcomer.

_"That's Eraserhead. Oh fuck, oh shit-" _

Sam's mental panic was stopped when the hero's eyes lit up red and cancelled her quirk. "I don't know what your quirk is, but your eyes glow when you use it. Your old enough to know better than to use it in public."

"Oh! Sorry, I have a mental quirk, it acts up when I'm nervous." Sam pretended to act flustered, going as far as smiling and scratching the back of her head like Danny and Izuku do sometimes. It seemed to work though, because the hero let his quirk drop.

"My apologies, I overreacted," he mumbled before turning to the sunshine man. "What are you doing anyways? You don't need anything from this store."

"Oh! These two are looking for clothes for a school dance! They seemed nervous so I was going to offer to help!" Eraserhead shrugged then turned back to the kids.

"My name's Aizawa, this is Yamada. If he makes you uncomfortable you can say so… he's kinda strange."

Yamada pouted, but quickly returned to being a ball of sunshine.

"We'd love the help, actually. We've never, uh, done this before." Sam linked her elbow with Danny's and began dragging him into the store. Finding him a suit would be easier than finding a dress that Sam was happy wearing. The two men followed them in, though Aizawa looked like he didn't want to be there. He looked at the bright dresses in disgust. Somehow, they ended up splitting up, Sam with Aizawa and Danny with Yamada. The first thing Sam did was slip on a pair of black sunglasses. _"I didn't know my eyes glowed when I used my quirk."_

_"I didn't know anybody else could tell. I only started noticing they got brighter after I got my powers." _Danny sighed at the happy face tie Yamada held up and, once again, explained that his date (Sam) was an American goth. Spiderwebs… death… anything halloween should work.

_"Eraserhead is absolutely no help, he fell asleep on a chair!" _Sam grumbled. _"Damn, none of this'll work! Maybe… should I ask for something halloweenish?" _

Danny shrugged, then remembered she wouldn't be able to see that. Yamada gave him a weird look, which the teen ignored. _"Yeah, sure. If you find anything give me a rundown of what kind of tie would look good with it." _

Danny stopped functioning when an employee, who had listened in on the conversations between him and Yamada, found the perfect suit for him in the back. He grinned, and Yamada sputtered questions on whether that would be appropriate for a school dance.

The suit was black except for the spiderwebs covering, was the perfect size. Yamada looked disgusted by the large silver spiders that seemed to pop out of the fabric. A plain black tie and purple undershirt was found to finish off the outfit.

On the other side of the store, Sam was met with a similar style. A dress, black, with spider web sleeves and a purple lace up front. Instead of renting the outfits, Sam bought them.

Of course, the fun was short lived when a familiar fire breathing villain attacked the mall. Not even, like, to steal something. The familiar woman just swooped down and burned a hole in a nearby store.

"Run you two!" Yamada yelled, startling the two kids into action.

_"Over here!" _Sam hissed, pulling the boy into a girl's bathroom and shoving him into a stall with her before anybody could notice. _"Go! They might need your help!" _

_"What about Eraserhead?!" _Danny asked, even though he had already changed and flew out of the bathroom. The Dragon Lady was screaming about her mother being unfair, and Eraserhead's quirk couldn't stop her wings as she flew around breaking windows and occasionally, when the erasure quirk needed a break, setting things on fire.

"Hey, Dragon lady! Don't you have anything better to do?" Danny was careful to stay out of Eraserhead's line of sight. The gas mask made it difficult for the teen to speak clearly as well… maybe Izuku would be able to fix that. The Dragon lady screeched and darted towards him.

Our little Danny, however, shot straight up into the sky with the villain hot on his tail… literally. He led her away from the people and quickly took her down. Even though the woman was powerful, she wasn't a skilled fighter. Sam's voice constantly piped up with information about what was going on there. Danny threw the unconscious woman on the ground outside the nearest police station and raced back to the mall while invisible.

_"Danny, I'm gonna invite Eraserhead to the group chat, okay?" _

_"Yeah, sure."_ It took a couple minutes of waiting for Eraserhead to enter.

_"Are you injured?" _was the first thing he said. He seemed… annoyed, but also worried. Strained.

_"We're fine, but I saw that Inviso-Bill guy fly off. What's with him?" _Sam said as the two kids left the bathroom. There was a lot of damage, but nobody looked injured.

_"Where are you? I need to talk to you." _

_"Ugh, you're gonna question me aren't you." _Sam groaned out loud.

_"We are gonna ask questions, yes, but you aren't in any trouble." _the 'unless you try to run' was left unsaid.

_"Fine, but you can't tell my parents." _

Sam grinned at Danny, who just glared at her. She would weave a story that would make them seem completely innocent. Maybe she'd make it so he was _never _a suspect.

They came to a small ring of police and the two heroes from before. Eraserhead and Present Mic. A detective talked with them until the two teens were within sight.

_"Fuck-" _Danny cut himself off when he remembered Eraserhead was in the chat. _"My parents are gonna kill me if they find out about this." _

_"I told you, you aren't in trouble."_

_"Fucking- god damnit, kick him out. I can't think straight with a hero listening to my every thought." _

Sam laughed aloud, startling the detective. Seeing as he didn't look confused, it was possible that Eraserhead had told him her quirk. He pulled a mini- notepad and pen out.

"My name is Naomasa Tsukauchi, I'm a detective. Would you tell me everything you saw involving the villain and the vigilante known as Invi-"

"God that's such a stupid name!" Danny interrupted. "Couldn't it have been Phantom? Or Ghost?"

"We didn't give him the name-"

"Neither did he…" Danny grumbled. "Anyways, Phantom- since that's _way _better than _Inviso-Bill _\- flew through the wall of the bathroom we were hiding in. I ended up leaving the place I was sitting in to see the villain. Probably not the best idea, to be honest, but she was so far away! Sam used her quirk so we could communicate."

The detective made a mark on his notepad. It looked like a simple line. Checkmark?

" Did you notice anything about the vigilante, like, say, his quirks?"

Danny shrugged. "He can go through walls, disappear, and fly, what else should I know?"

"Did you notice anything about the way he looks or something out of the ordinary?"

"He's a vigilante, _everything _he does is out of the ordinary. But, I suppose his glowing green eyes are kinda spooky."

"Alright, and, finally, did you see anybody that looked anything like him during your shopping trip."

The kids hesitated too long.

"I… didn't see anybody with white hair our age." Danny replied.

"The Phantom wore a mask." Sam supplied. The detective narrowed his eyes at them and stuffed the notebook back in his pockets, along with his hands.

"Have you… ever met Invis- I mean, the Phantom?" _"Don't answer that."_ Danny said. He noticed Eraserhead glare at him.

_"What do we say?" _

_"Remember what Izuku said? They have a human lie detector somewhere in the police force. What if Tsukauchi is it?" _

"The Phantom said hi to me once after beating a mugger in an alleyway. Totally saved my life." Sam replied finally. "Danny didn't want to admit it, but he's a total fan of the vigilante and keeps trying to convince the guy to take a photo with him."

The detective sighed but nodded to the heroes, who seemed to visibly relax.

"Here, my card, call me if you ever get information on the vigilante." Tsukauchi handed the cards to each of the kids.

_"Imma gonna burn mine, how about you?" _Sam asked. Danny chuckled, staring at the card in his hands.

_"_ _Bookmark."_


	8. Chapter 8:Back to school bash

The night of the dance came quicker than anybody anticipated. Danny and Sam arrived in their spiderweb- themed outfits, Izuku came alone, sadly. It seemed Paulina ditched him when she found out she wasn't stealing him from anybody else. Apparently she thought he had been dating Bakugou. I don't know what part of that was more insulting.

As is usual with the selfless boy, Izuku didn't let his emotions ruin anybody else's night. In fact, he danced with Sam more than Danny did since the ghost boy was busy trying to keep his father from their homeroom teacher. The other staff member chaperoning was Mr. Lancer. He was their english teacher and often cursed in book titles. Sam's favorite so far was _"___Great Okinawa Hauntings!" __which proved she was right about him not just obsessing over normal stories but also ghoulish ones.

Danny was running himself ragged as he flitted back and forth between his friends and family. Jazz was there too, hanging out with Bakugou for some reason. Even if she was just a year older than Danny, and therefore only a few months older than Bakugou, it still seemed weird that she would talk to somebody in the grade below her. No matter how weird and annoying it was to see his sister talking to his bully, Danny was just glad she wasn't butting into his business for once.

After the first half hour, everything began settling down. Danny readied himself to ask Sam to the next dance when everything went to shit.

Sam went still.

_"___Dragon Lady is back." __

Danny ducked under a table and hid behind the table cloth as a window above the gymnasium shattered. He transformed and turned invisible as he crawled out and watched the villain.

"Monsters! Cretens!"

Screaming and pushing ensued as the students ran from the room. An explosion was heard as Bakugou attacked the villain before she could snatch one of the children. The Dragon Lady screeched and flew the opposite way, spitting fire the entire way.

"Look out!" Danny screamed, flying over to knock one of his annoying classmates out of the way of a falling beam. The ghost boy hissed as the fire licked at his back, then froze as a scream echoed above the other students. "Sam!"

_"___Danny help!__" Phantom didn't think twice before chasing after the Dragon Lady and Sam, who was tangled in a rope that the villain held the ends of.

"Can't you find a hobby?! You know, you'd make a great forgemaster!" Danny wasn't sure what he was saying, but it worked in making the villain stop and roar at him. Just what he wanted. A punch to her face made her roar and let go of the rope to grab her jaw.

"Sam!" He cried, grabbing her before she could hit the grass of the football field. He set her down and hurried to where the villain had crashed landed. The Dragon Lady stood quickly and wasted no time in attacking Phantom. He was somewhat good at dodging, but the fire and heat radiating off her made him feel nauseous and weak. He was sent flying into one of the bleachers near Sam.

"You've stolen the bride, return her to me!" The villain roared. Her wings spread wide for intimidation, then just as quickly enveloped her body like a comfort blanket. "Brother will be so angry-"

She went from angry to timid, then back again so quickly Phantom wondered if this was what wipblash felt like. He ended up deciding, no, this was what a concussion felt like. He was woozy and his vision blurred. The headache alone made him want to throw up, but he stepped in front of Sam.

_"___Danny, can you hear me." __

_"___BlegHairdoWhatis she evenWearing Damn." __

_"___Oh god what's wrong with you-"__ _"___What's she evenWearingOhShit-"__ Danny picked Sam up and run as the Dragon screeched and charged for him. His brain felt fuzzing and he wondered what he was forgetting… yeah, he could fly but so could she… overshadowing is difficult 'cause she'd just slash at him…

_"___Flight, overshadow-"__ _"___Danny what are you doing?"__

_"___\- ghost sense-"__ _"___Danny you're starting to worry me!"__

_"___Invisibilty… Intangibility!" __

As the boy's muddy mind cleared slightly he skidded to a stop. The villain passed right through them and hit the ground face first. She looked back and growled, only to look confused when she didn't see the vigilante and the girl.

"What the fu-" "Freeze!" Somebody yelled. She did what they said involuntarily. Slowly, she turned to see Midnight and Kumai Woods with a few police officers behind them. Danny Phantom's form flickered as he set his friend down behind the bleachers, out of the view of law enforcement. Sam tried not to scream when he fell over unconscious.


	9. Chapter 9: practice

**Chapter Text**

Luckily, though it was kinda sad, Izuku was getting good at patching up injuries. So far nobody had needed stitches, and Danny healed faster than most people. Thankfully there was no school the next day, so Sam and Izuku settled in Danny's room to make sure while he slept he didn't…

Nevermind.

Izuku, apparently, had stayed in the gymnasium until everybody escaped, including helping the boy that Danny pushed out of the way. Bakugou did the same, though insulting everybody for their slowness.

Sam didn't sleep well, her mind continually drifting to the unconscious boy she was sleeping next to. He was paler than usual and his black hair had a mat of blood on the right side from the villain. He was laid on his left side and Sam stared at his face to see if he would flinch or grimace. She didn't want him in any more pain, but she knew the burns on his back were bad. He didn't like heat all that much since the accident.

Izuku's phone alarm went off around six o' clock. It startled all three kids awake.

"Danny! You're all right!" Sam pulled her friend into a hug, ignoring the way he sputtered and blushed.

"Uh, yeah. And, hey, look! My spider suit survived!" Danny motioned towards what he was wearing. His shirt and jacket had been removed to bandage the injuries, but they all looked completely fine besides some spots of blood on the inside of the shirt.

Izuku gave Danny a disapproving look. The suit wasn't the most important thing, or perhaps Danny didn't know how life threatening the concussion could've been for anybody else. After half an hour or so removing bandages and checking injuries, the three got dressed and made their way downstairs to grab food. Nobody else was down there. Jazz was at the library or touring colleges like usual, and his parents were either in the lab or off at a meeting.

The kids decided to work on studying for the test on Tuesday since they were usually too busy fighting villains. Or, rather, Danny studied. Sam taught Izuku take down moves she'd learned in karate classes she took when she was younger. She was by no means professional, but her purple belt showed she was much better than either boy. In fact, she had that belt somewhere in her closet back home and enjoyed wearing it when she kicked their butts.

Danny continuously got distracted from his studying when certain moves caught his attention. After a couple hours, he threw his hands into the air and declared he gave up.

Noon came sooner than any of them expected, and they found themselves sitting in the lab alone.

"Should we play with your powers?" Sam asked, looking at a box full of the newest Fenton disasters. One of them seemed to be a thermos, but none of them could tell it's real purpose. It was left in the box and Sam instead fished out a paintball gun from a cluttered cabinet. It was small, about the size of a regular handgun, and the paintballs were the size of a dime _****(sorry, i know they don't use dimes in Japan but I figured you guys would understand that best)****_****. They were, if Danny could remember properly, color- coordinated by the uses. Red stunned somebody, blue canceled powers, yellow- surprisingly- was actually to induce a small boost in stamina. Danny didn't know how they worked, but he didn't really care.

A small batch of failed paintballs were green and did absolutely nothing except sting a little when they hit.

"Yeah, normal challenge?" Danny transformed and floated slightly. Sam clicked an already filled magazine into the gun. It was highlighted green to show which ones they were. Twenty paintballs fit inside, surprisingly, and the gun had never jammed before. Sam tossed a second, slightly larger paintball gun with a similar magazine to Izuku.

"Ready?" Sam started. Danny darted away as she pulled the trigger. Villains don't wait for a response to attack, so neither would she. This exercise was useful for them all since Danny worked on dodging while they worked on their aim. Izuku was better than Sam and actually hit Danny a couple times within the first few minutes. The sting of the paintballs disappeared within seconds after he turned intangible and the boys just laughed.


	10. Chapter 10: seaweed hair

A blue mist escaped from Danny's mouth as he neared the Box Man. The villain wannabe was causing chaos by throwing boxes around a storage area. The blue mist was somewhat a mystery, but Izuku theorized that it was some sort of warning since it only went off when Danny was around somebody he thought was or could be dangerous or he was afraid of. Though the Box Man definitely wasn't either of those things, Danny must've just considered him a villain.

The Box Man didn't stand a chance.

"So much for the Fentons being a family of geniuses," Danny muttered, glaring down at the poor grade on the Tuesday test. It was still a passing grade, but it definitely should've been better. The boy felt the urge to rip the paper in half, but gently set it back on his desk instead.

"Don't worry, Danny, we'll find something else for you to do! Extra credit is being offered, remember?" Sam was reading a short list on the whiteboard at the front of mostly empty room. The teacher had written a few different extra credit essays he would accept. Sam suddenly grinned. "Oh, I've got it! The purple back gorilla, there are only two left in the world and both are male! There's one here in Japan is named Sabishi and the other is in America. You're going to prove that Sabishi should be set free!"

"I don't have time for extra credit! Or your agenda!"

"Um, actually, you do." Izuku pulled out a small hand held device. It looked like a phone, except there was a built in keyboard and had a pen stuck in the top. "I've been working on making a schedule for us to follow. It should make it easier to balance school and, uh, work."

Danny sighed. "Fine, we'll give it a trial period." Izuku beamed. He began typing furiously into the device.

"Great! So, I've actually got two of these planners in case I break one, so don't worry. Also, they don't mention names or specific places so if we lose one it can't be tracked back to us!"

"So, what's the plan for today?"

"Since you are doing the extra credit- wait you're doing that right?" Danny nodded before Izuku continued. "We should do research. School library, public library, then zoo. Believe it or not, but we could totally get permission to stay in the zoo overnight, but we'd probably need a little, um, persuasion…"

Both boys looked over at Sam, who just sighed. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I'm a money bank now, huh?"

Izuku began to apologize and deny it, but Danny was to busy searching through his phone to pay attention. Jazz had texted him that Nezu was interviewing their parents for a potential job with quirk __enhancers __. Jazz was annoyed, Danny decided to avoid home, and Izuku and Sam were talking about how the gorilla could or couldn't survive in the wild.

Eventually, the kids decided to go straight to the zoo. It was Tuesday, so there wouldn't be many people there, and it technically closed at three, so Sam had to… uh… convince the zoo to allow them to stay after hours.

Danny quickly fell asleep on the floor of the observation room while Sam and Izuku watched and studied the gorilla.

"Should we wake him up?" Izuku asked, looking back towards the boy curled up on the cold floor. The bags under his eyes had been building up for a while now, and he looked exhausted beyond belief. Sam was about to say yes when Danny whimpered in his sleep and curled up more.

"Sabishi… so majestic, so beautiful!" She said instead, looking back at the gorilla with her binoculars. The sun was still high, but there wasn't a soul in sight. "We should go try and communicate with him!"

"Um, how about you do that and I make sure Danny doesn't accidently activate his powers in his sleep. I'd rather not have to mess with the cameras in the zoo." Izuku slowly sat beside the shivering boy. Sam left, looking back to see Izuku draping his school uniform jacket over Danny.

Unbeknownst to the three kids, a new enemy was watching from the ground in the shadow of a tiger's cage. He was larger than most, standing at nearly seven feet. It was obvious at the state of his that he relied heavily on support items. Or, perhaps, he __was __support items. He had electric green eyes like Danny, along with neon green hair and goatee. His grin was filled with jagged teeth. The most alarming thing, though, was that his skin was an off-white color that didn't seem natural. His quirk, for lack of a better term, was Sticky Goo. He could change its shape into chains or just blobs of a slime-like substance. The goo disappeared when he got a certain distance away from it. Despite how dangerous he was, he'd never been arrested before. Maybe because he se;f destructed every time a hero came close

Danny woke to Izuku shaking him and screaming in his face. He jumped up and transformed. "There's a villain down there! And Sam let Sabishi out!"

"Izuku, the cameras. If something happens to us call the police regardless of my condition." By condition, he meant form. Before Izuku could say anything, Danny went through the window and hurried down to where the gorilla attacked the villain. Sam was running the opposite way, which Danny was glad for. When he neared, a shot of green ooze stuck the gorilla to the outside of its cage.

"Hey! Seaweed hair!" Danny dropped down onto the man before he could harm the gorilla any more.

"Gah! What the-" The hunter yelled as Danny covered his eyes and latches onto his back. "You little whelp! Get your paws off me!"

Danny laughed at the man's annoyance until rockets popped out of the hunter's back and snagged the boys feet in place. As they shot into the air Danny yelped and held onto his head hold even tighter. With a few loops and the hunter's crazy flying, they quickly crashed into the observation room. Danny let go and faxed through, leaving the villain to crash into the wall.

Hopefully he wouldn't come back.


	11. Chapter 11: Hi ma hi dad

**_don't forget- the star (*) shows something being spoken in english_**

Danny walked into the house just before the interview could end. Nezu turned to look at him from where he was perched on a hero's shoulder.

"Danny, what happened? I don't think I like these trips to the zoo…" Yurei said, studying her son. Jazz moved to stand but decided otherwise.

"It's fine mom! Just three kids at a zoo… alone… we'll be in my room." Danny trudged up the stairs with his friends close at his heels. Izuku's mouth gaped as he tried to say words about the heros. Eraserhead and Nezu.

"Did you see him?! Nezu?! That's amazing!"

"You mean the rat bear dog thing? Yeah, I guess." Danny said absently, as they moved through the halls.

"His quirk is high IQ! He's a genius!"

Danny opened his mouth to speak and a wisp of cold air escaped. The door to his bedroom flew open and a net entangled the boy.

"Danny!" Izuku and Sam cried, but they were powerless to stop the hunter as he dragged the boy into the room and slammed the door.

"Who are you!?" Danny said, fighting against the electric blue net. He recognized it as an old project of his parents', it was supposed to cancel out quirks but there was a fatal flaw. It didn't work on all quirks, and it could be destroyed easily.

"I am Skulker! The world's greatest hunter and collector of powerful and unique quirks. And you, ghost child, are all that and more!" "What do you mean "and more".?"

"I mean the fact that you gained your quirks unnaturally! And survived! Tell me, how did you do it?" Danny caught his breath. How did this villain know? What was he gonna do with the information? Now that he knew who Phantom's family was, was he going to target them as well? The hunter shattered a model rocket under his boot and the vigilante stopped worrying to instead yell profanities at the villain instead.

"You broke my rocket you fudge! I built that!" "Pity, I thought you would put up more of a fight."

"Don't worry-" Danny changed form and phased out of the net "-I will."

A battle ensued. Danny began throwing the hunter around his room, destroying furniture and dry wall in the process. Sam and Izuku hurried down stairs. Since the kitchen was right below Danny's bedroom, Izuku hurried in under the guise that he was grabbing snacks.

"Sam, what's all that noise?" Yurei asked, staring up at the ceiling. The heros were standing too, looking up as a particularly loud crash made the ceiling shake and dust fell.

"Danny's, uh, lifting weights?"

"Danny doesn't have a weight lifting set up stairs!" Yurei looked annoyed now, and the heroes started towards the stairs.

"Uh-um-uh, that's why he's using his dresser!"

Sam tried to distract the heroes but they'd already pushed past her. Nezu sat on Eraserhead's shoulder as he hurried up the stairs. He stopped when a loud crash sent something through the ceiling in the kitchen and destroyed the coffee table. Everybody hurried in only to see Izuku in the midst of the wreckage. He panicked and struck a karate pose.

"What's going on here!" Eraserhead yelled. To everybody's surprise, even Nezu looked somewhat confused.

Sam glared at Izuku when the boy shuffled and broke.

"Danny got his quirk!" He yelled quickly, then covered his mouth in fear.

* "But Danny's quirkless, he couldn't have gotten one this late in the game!" Jack laughed, but stopped when Yurei nudged him in the ribs.

"What is it?" "Super strength. He's been having difficulties but he wanted to learn to control it before we told you." Sam shot Izuku a glare and he covered his face with his hands. Good, he should be embarrassed. However, it was a good play. Since Eraserhead can tell when somebody has a quirk, and the Fenton's were bound to notice eventually that Danny was constantly breaking things.

Down in the lab things weren't going so well. Skulker was beating the boy senseless and waving around a tool he'd stolen from Izuku. A small, portable device with the kid's schedule. He laughed, then quickly uploaded the schedule to his suit.

"Haha! I'll always find you, whelp!" he moved to kick the kid on the ground, but was distracted by a small voice coming from his suit.

_"___Go to the zoo to purchase pamphlet on… purple back gorilla." __

Skulker screamed in annoyance when his jet packs activated and sent him flying straight up and out of the building. A crowd of voices made their way down the steps and Danny turned to his normal form, sitting cross legged on the floor.

"Hi mom, hi dad…"

A few wooden boards landed at their feet as they stared up at the hole in the ceiling.


	12. Chapter 12: Help

_"__This is a bad idea."_ Sam's voice warned in his head. Danny shook it away. There were worse things they could've tried. Skulker was a serious problem, one that he really didn't want to deal with.

_"__Take a left,_" Izuku said. He was tracking Eraserhead, but Danny was to worried about not getting caught to ask how. He followed directions, flying slowly, or walking through alleyways. The three teens weren't known for being sneaky, especially Danny.

_"__He should be just up ahead, be careful. We'll be across the street."_

A snicker echoed through Danny's head and he caught a glimpse of a telepathically sent picture of Izuku grinning over his sniper rifle full of paintballs. Red ones. Danny hovered in the air slightly, waiting for the hero. The young boy hoped there would be time to convince the hero not to attack.

A shiver went up the boy's back and he fell to the ground with a thud.

"What are you doing Phantom?" A voice said. Danny looked up at the shadowy figure and was able to make out the white scarf that belonged to Eraserhead.

"Looking for you, actually, Penciltop."

Danny looked down and was relieved that, while his powers had been canceled, he hadn't been forced to return to his other form.

"I didn't realize you wanted to be arrested so badly." The hero didn't move from his spot, but Danny could see faintly how his head moved slightly to the sides. He was looking for something...or someone.

"They aren't here. My friends didn't think this was a good idea."

"Your friends are smarter than you, it seems."

"That's enough Penciltop, I have more important things to worry about!"

"Like what, homework?" It sounded like a genuine question, but it made Danny angrier anyways.

"You know what? Yes! I have homework, and tests, and I haven't slept well in months! But now, at this moment, I have a quirk collector hunting me. That's the only reason I came out here, I was trying to ask for help, but noooo, you just want to arrest me! I guess I should've known!"

_"__Take him down,"_ the boy thought bitterly before darting away. Eraserhead called after him, but a sudden pain in his leg left him stumbling and falling to his knees. He looked to see a small, red splatter on his calf. He passed out thinking he'd been shot.

"So...they have guns?" Tsukauchi asked, staring at the dark red on Eraserhead's pants.

"They have paintball guns. It seems something in the paint is a sedative." The hero's face was it's usual tired look, but the detective noticed the way his eyes flicked towards the file on his desk or out the window. "The boy is being hunted, it seems. He came to me for help but left when he thought i just wanted to arrest him."

"Hunted?"

"By a quirk collector, he said. On top of that he's stressed with homework and hasn't been sleeping well."

"He told you all this?"

"More like he unloaded it on me. He snapped."

Eraserhead grabbed the thin file on the vigilante and opened it. "He didn't react to the name Phantom either, it seems the Fenton boy was right."

"Fenton? Danny Fenton? The one from the mall? Do you think he knows something?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I should question him anyways."


	13. Chapter 13: stop it already1

Izuku won't stop apologizing. Over and over he would tell Danny he was sorry. He'd been doing it since the night before when he found out that Skulker had downloaded the schedule. Izuku looks like he's about to cry.

"Izuku, it's okay. It's not like you _wanted _him to get it, right?" Danny says, waving away the problem.

"Yeah, and now that he knows our schedule, we know where he's gonna be. We could set a trap for him!" Sam hit her fist on the table, causing Danny's milk to tip over into his lap. They heard a snicker as Bakugo walked past.

Danny stood, waving the others to follow on his way around the school. Along the way Izuku started pulling some information up on his tablet. "Skulker is considered a member of the "Ghost Gang," which is an American based villain group. There aren't a lot of them known yet, but they have matching tattoos. Like little squiggly things on their backs. Sam what is this?"

She took the tablet and stared at it for in confusion. "Um… it looks like a plastic bag with eyes."

"Whatever it is we know to watch out for it. Hey, keep watch for a moment, ok?" Danny said, turning intangible as Izuku and Sam looked around for any peeping eyes. The mess of milk slid off and landed in the grass.

"That looks really gross," Sam mumbled at the grass before letting the boys lead her away. In hindsight they should've known it was a bad idea, since Bakugo had seen the spill.

"How the fuck are you not wet?!" Bakugo yelled. He pointed at Danny, annoyed and confused. The three kids just held back their laughter.

* "You really need to work on your anger, dude," Danny said. He watched as Bakugo sputtered, trying to respond but not completely understanding what had been said. "And your English."

_"Stop, somebody's nearby," _Sam said in their group chat. Izuku began rambling in their heads in worry. A dozen theories whipped past in a matter of seconds, only to stop when somebody walked into the hall. His dead eyes caught Danny's.

"Danny Fenton, I would like to speak with you," Eraserhead said. His eyes glanced over to Izuku and Sam. "You two come as well."

The three followed the hero outside, protesting that they had school and would fall behind. The hero did very little to ease their worries, but did admit to talking to teachers beforehand.

_"He was probably worried we'd run off if they set up a time to meet. They might not even know who we are." _Sam said it to comfort them, but her voice dripped with worry.

_"Even if they did know, we have more important things to worry about, or have you forgotten the quirk collector hunting us down?" _

_"Technically he's hunting you," _Izuku piped in. He hurried with the buckle in the police vehicle they were in. They sat in the back, Eraserhead in the passenger seat, an unknown officer driving. They all sat in silence besides the telepathic group chat the kids were communicating through. They mostly just went over a few more things Izuku knew about the Ghost Gang and a couple other well known members.

_"Why would anybody ever think Warden is a good Villain name?" _

_"We're here, don't do anything stupid. I'm talking to you, Danny." _Sam nudged the boys out of the vehicle and stood between them while Eraserhead motioned for them to hurry into the police station.

"I hate this," Danny muttered. "My parents would kill me if they found out i was here."

The hero looked looked back towards him. "They won't be angry if you've got nothing to hide."

"Ha! And here I thought you knew my parents."

The kids were left in separate rooms, not surprisingly, and left to be interrogated at different times.

_"Not _interrogate, _they're just asking some questions," _Sam reasoned. The quiver in her voice told a different story. Danny just sighed and leaned on his hand while he waited. His wait wasn't long, though, because somebody chose that moment to walk in.

"Tsukauchi, I remember you." Danny made sure to think the words as he said them so that the others could hear.

"Yes, I know, let's just cut to the chase kid. We know it's you."

_"He says 'we know it's you'." _

_"He's lying," _Izuku replied.

"Alright, fine! You caught me! I admit it-"

The detective looked surprised.

"-I took some money from my mom's purse to go to the movies."

The detective looked annoyed. "That's not what I'm talking about."

"I got a concussion during the attack at the school-"

"That's a bit worrisome but try again."

"I pranked the school bully really badly as revenge for giving me a black eye-"

"I'm going to talk to the school, now try again."

"Phantom steals weapons he deems dangerous from my parents and destroys them and I never try to stop him."

"So… that's how you know Phantom?"

"No… when he first noticed his powers I tried to help him control them."

_"You probably shouldn't say anything more. Tsukauchi can tell when somebody is lying, but not that they aren't telling the full truth." _Izuku sounded calmer than San, which was odd.

"So you've known Phantom since he was five? Can you tell me his name?"

"Phantom wasn't really… he doesn't have an actual name, he's just Phantom. Always has been, always will be."

"But you've known him since childhood?"

"Yes."

The detective furrowed his eyebrows.

_"I think that registered as a lie, he seems really confused. What do I do?!" _Danny struggled not to show how he was panicking outward.

_"You're terrible at this, just ask when you can leave." _

"When can I leave? I want to go back to school."

"Even if I didn't have this quirk I would know that was a lie. I've got to admit you're pretty good, you know how to dance around the questions. Now, I've got one last question. Does anybody know the true identity of Phantom?"

Danny paled, then looked down, around, anywhere except at the detective.

_"Skulker! Skulker knows!" _Izuku yelled.

_"Izuku no yelling!" _

"Skulker… I don't know much about him besides what Phantom was told. He's some sort of quirk collector and is hunting Phantom."

Tsukauchi gasped. "He's here? In Japan? Do you know why?"

"Phantom said the hunter was here for him. He needed help, a place to hide, but Skulker was quick to find him."

"Is Phantom safe?"

"When is he ever safe? Between keeping up with crazy parents and crazy villains, it's no wonder he's constantly on high alert."

"We can help, we want to help him, we just need to know how."

_"We could use their help, actually. We need to figure out a way to trap Skulker." _Sam and Izuku began plotting a trap while Danny just stared at the table, listening to them.

"You're talking with your friends, aren't you?" Tsukauchi looked impressed and mildly annoyed. "We put Sam on the other side of the building because we thought the distance would keep her powers from working. What are they saying?"

"Nothing."

"Then what _were _they talking about?"

"They were trying to come up with a plan for Phantom and the police force to work together and stop Skulker. I told them you guys would never be up for it unless you were able to either kill or arrest Phantom."

"First of all, we wouldn't kill Phantom, secondly... tell us what you need, we'll do whatever is necessary to stop the hunter."


	14. Chapter 14: RoBoT PiECe oF-

"Where's Daniel?" Eraserhead asked, looking around the observatory.

"Not here, obviously. He went to make sure you guys didn't set any traps for Phantom." Sam crossed her arms, glaring at the hero. "He found then and turned them off."

The hero sighed. He should've seen this coming, especially when the kids refused to tell what Danny's job in the plan was. Izuku was messing with the computer after an employee gave the password, he was checking cameras and searching for Skulker. Sam was looking as well, but with binoculars. The hero couldn't help but be slightly impressed at how quickly they could think through the plan.

"Look, there he is!" She suddenly said, nudging Eraserhead. Skulker was entering the cage carefully. He used his own binoculars to look at the cage. Sabishi had been moved to someplace safe and was replaced by a life sized stuffed animal from the gift shop. It's cartoonish face and most of its back had a blanket thrown over it. "Izuku, give us audio."

After a bit of typing the audio from the cage's cameras came through.

"You stupid gorilla, that little artificial hero was supposed to be here!"

"Well then, look no further!" Danny called, hovering above the hunter. Skulker started and his head snapped up towards the boy. A roar escaped the hunter's lips as he shot a trap at the boy. It was easily dodged and Danny retaliated by picking up the giant gorilla doll and throwing it at the hunter.

While distracted, Skulker didn't notice Danny dart in front of him. A solid blow to the face sent the head flying.

"What the hay! Okay, I know I'm stronger than most people but this is ridiculous!"

There was no reply from Sam or Izuku, nor did either of them try to set up contact. Danny figured something was wrong, and picked up the tin head. It was filled with wires and steel that was probably already weakened when the fight took place.

"A robot? Seriously?" Regardless the boy put the head under his arm and turned invisible. Or, at least, he tried. "Aw, fuc-"

He darted when he heard a rustle of the tree, just in time, too. A scarf slapped the air where Danny had been standing, only to be whipped back by its owner. Danny spun towards Eraserhead perched in a tree with his goggles on and scarf readied. Danny looked pained, but he readied himself for a fight anyways.

"What did you do to Sam and Izuku?!" He demanded as he crept back a bit.

"Nothing, I assure you, they are perfectly fine."

"Liar, you did something to them! Sam and Izuku promised you wouldn't try to catch me, so why didn't they warn me?!" "I slipped a minor sleeping pill into their drinks, completely within my rights when dealing with criminals." Danny fumed, glaring at the hero. After a few seconds of silence he suddenly smirked. "Guess the joke's on you! Daniel, hit it!" He stared past Eraserhead, which startled him into spinning around. It didn't take him long to see it was merely a distraction, and one that worked perfectly.

"Shit."

He should've thought twice before betraying the vigilante.


	15. Chapter 15: The Stars Are Shining

In all of Hizashi's Yamada's life there had only been two instances where he'd wished he had never met his boyfriend Aizawa. Once, when they were new heros and newly dating and Aizawa started sneaking out. Yamada thought he was cheating, turns out a cut cat nearby would meow for attention. They adopted her by the way! Her name is Kyarameru, but everybody calls her Kyara. The second time was a couple years ago when Aizawa turned down a wedding proposal. Later on he confessed that he was afraid if he wore a ring it would, eventually, snag on something.

Now, there may have wished only twice to have never met Aizawa, there were __dozens __of times were he regretted them becoming heroes. Right now, as he stood behind his seat draped over the chair, he regretted it once more. Once again, he'd rushed into battle at the first hint that the vigilante Phantom was in danger. When children are in danger, all common sense leaves the dark haired fool.

Yamada wouldn't admit it, but the excess pressure he put on the large gash on Aizawa's back that made him hiss in pain wasn't a total accident. Luckily the injury didn't need stitches, but the gauze and tape he used as bandages would be ruined by morning.

"He's getting better at avoiding me. Since that time with Skulker, Phantom's been nearly impossible to find, and he was literally considered a __ghost __before."

"Ghost? Isn't that a term they give to villains who have unknown quirks? I thought you knew his powers."

Aizawa sighed. "We thought we did, but now a new power has popped up. Apparently he can shoot green energy beams from his palms. It seems like powers are just appearing out of thin air."

"Powers can't just appear out of thin air," Tsukauchi said. The blond sitting uncomfortably in the chair across the desk from him stared at the ground. He looked deep in thought, then like somebody punched him in the gut, then steely. His emotions waved like a roller coaster and his mouth opened and closed multiple times before he could find the words.

"You think he works for All for One?"

"I thought maybe he was one of his victims, actually. He seems to genuine to be a spy, and it would explain how Skulker knew his true identity." At the blond's confused expression, Tsukauchi explained. "Skulker knew Phantom's identity, but the body was actually only a robot so we couldn't get any information from it."

"So, Phantom's in danger regardless of which identity he is using?" "Yes, I believe so."

Being thirteen isn't fun. But now, with his fourteenth birthday here, he wished it could stay this way for a little while longer. As usual Jack forgot, and Yurei decorated the living room with blue balloons and a banister that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY!" It was the same every year. Every year they spent it the same. If there was no school, like this year, they would spend the day playing board games or watching movies. Not even good movies, just old VCRs they found collecting dust in the closet.

Jazz, of course, made up excuses to spend as much time as possible away from this torture, but Izuku and Sam came over with a present each.

"Um, can we go hang out in my room, I actually want to work on a school project with them," Danny asked nervously. He sat on the opposite side of the giant couch from his parents, obviously trying to stay away. Er, well, it was obvious to anybody who was paying attention, both his parents were tinkering with new projects.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah sure." Yurei said absently.

The kids all hurried upstairs. A slightly beat up weight lifting set sat off against one wall, along with a few dumbells in various weights. Izuku looked excited, Sam looked confused.

"That half truth you told my parents convinced my dad to give me it. It was his old thing I guess. A few of the dumbells are new though, I think."

"Do you use it?" Sam asked as she picked up a set of fifteens and began messing with them.

"Oh, right, you guys haven't been over in, like, a week. Yeah, I've been using them since I got them. The morning after that whole thing with Skulker and Eraserhead."

Sam looked away. She still hadn't completely forgiven herself for not being able to help him when the hero betrayed them all. Luckily there wasn't any questioning and the kids weren't approached by the hero or detective again because, let me tell you, Sam would've found a way to break into their minds just to give them a massive headache. And yes, that's something she's learned how to do to somebody linked to her.

"Open my present first!" Izuku said, shaking Sam out of her own thoughts. The bright smile on the boy's face made the others smile too. Danny quickly took the blue paper- wrapped shoebox and sat on the bed. The other two sat at his sides as he ripped the paper off.

Inside was a white and black sweatshirt, nearly identical to the top half of the Phantom outfit. The main difference was the hood, which had small, veiled eye holes and had a zipper that sealed it off.

"I think Eraserhead actually has to see skin or something to use his quirk, so I think all you need to do is cover your face. What do you think?" Izuku said excitedly.

"I think that's a great idea!"

"Mine next!" Sam said excitedly, stuffing the box into his hands.

Danny laughed and hurried to open it. It was larger and much heavier, and the glinting metal inside showed the boys exactly why. Skulker's head sat in the box, polished to a shine and with the hair untangled. Danny immediately burst out laughing, soon joined by the other two. Soon they were all laying back in the bed, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars they had stuck to the ceiling when they were younger. The occasional planet was painted on with silly colors. Quite a bit of art was destroyed in Skulker's attack.

"Do you still want to be an official hero, Izuku?" Danny asked suddenly. "More than anything. Why?" "Do you think, if offered a quirk, you would take it?" "Maybe eventually, but not right now." "Why?" "Because I know what you're thinking and there's no way I'm going into the machine." Sam snickered, but stopped when she noticed Danny wasn't laughing. In fact, Danny looked anything __but__ amused. He looked sad… something was wrong.

"My parents are taking me to a college reunion up north. Apparently their old college buddy is rich and is holding the reunion in his castle. I don't want to leave, especially if you guys can't come. What if something goes wrong?" "Well, then it goes wrong. After that, I suppose it'll be up to you to make it right again." Danny groaned and pushed himself off the bed. "But I don't __want__ it to depend on me. I don't want anybody to depend on me! I'm supposed to be like a ghost, in and out before you can say "boo!". Now, after that whole Skulker thing, Penciltop and his Lie Detector buddy has every hero in the city on the look out for me! I just… all I wanted was to help, why did it turn out like this?"

Sam was the first to his side, wrapping an arm around him and leaning her face into his shoulder. "It'll be alright, this'll all blow over eventually. You never wanted to be an actual hero either, remember? You wanted to restart JAXA and go to the moon! Remember that planet there?" Sam pointed to a small red planet with two brown moons revolving around it. A small silver saucer could be seen leaving the planet. "It's from when you decided aliens really existed and you wanted to meet them. You were convinced that they wouldn't have specialized quirks, maybe just a few powers that everybody had."

"I stand by my theory," he mumbled.

"Well, then I stand by mine. You don't have to be a hero, you can be a spaceman."

Danny smiled again, and he seemed to glow as he stared into Sam's eyes.


	16. Chapter 16: Danny is having difficulties

Danny is late, again. He could fly home and arrive on time, of course, but that would be cheating. Curfew was a test of how well you can manage time, and Danny was failing miserably. To make matters worse, he screeched to a halt at the sight of three elderly people with bird like wings were their arms should be and talons were their feet should've been. They all looked identical, even with their black suits and red hats. Triplets…?

"Hey! What are you doing?" Danny yelled. All three looked towards him.

* "Have you seen Jack Fenton?" one of them asked, his voice gravelly.

* "What do you want with him?! You know what? Nevermind, just get out of here before I kick you asses!" He changed into his Phantom form, readying himself for a fight. As a new addition, a sweatshirt hung over his outfit. Izuku had admitted that he added some armor to the chest and back of it, so there was a slight buff to Danny now. He'd never bothered to ask what the armor protected against.

The vultures swooped, talons at the ready. They passed harmlessly through the boy, slamming into each other as a result. While they lay on the cement dazed, Danny fished through the pictures until he found a torn piece of a picture with a younger version of his dad in it. The boy snorted at the sight of his father with a mullet.

His phone beeped, telling him he missed curfew.

"Fuck!"

Eraserhead admits that, under any other circumstances, this would be considered stalking. Eraserhead further admits that, as of now, he wouldn't rest until he figured out what happened to Phantom. Silence for three days was never a good thing, especially with this kid. It had only been two weeks since that whole thing with Skulker, and the hero didn't expect the kid to forgive the betrayal anytime soon, but stopping with the vigilante thing?

No way.

"Shota come to bed," Hizashi said, hiding his face in his pillow. The light of the desk cast odd shadows around the room and made it difficult for him to sleep. Aizawa, however, was as awake as possible. He read over the reports from the last sighting of Phantom three days ago when he took down the Vulture Brothers. The video from the camera had been corrupted, but they caught a video of the boy taking the villains down then ruffling through their pockets.

Tsukauchi had been worried after seeing that, assuming immediately that the boy had started robbing people. It wasn't until a small stack of papers arrived at the detective's desk about the vultures and their crimes that everybody calmed down a bit.

"He's gone quiet," Aizawa said suddenly. The ruffle of blankets told him that Hizashi had gotten up. The arms that suddenly wrapped around him gently proved him right.

"He'll be fine, he's a powerful kid. You're no good to him in this condition. Can you even stand?" Aizawa huffed but slowly stood, leaning over and letting his arms hang. His eye bags were more profound than usual. He kind of looked like a vampire.

He plopped onto the bed as Hizashi turned out the lights.

"So, turns out this guy that my parents knew in college was a scientist too!" Danny says, packing while he talked to his friends via speakerphone. Sam, surprisingly, seemed really sympathetic. Izuku, unsurprisingly, started asking questions about the scientist's projects and what he studied.

"I need to go you guys, I need to finish parking. And, hey, Izuku?"

__-Yep?- __

"You got that, uh, thing off the cameras right?"

__-Of course! You call while on vacation, right? And take pictures! I've never been on the inside of a castle before.- __

"Yeah, of course. Bye, see you both on Monday… or Tuesday."

Danny hurried to stuff some stuff into a bag and ran downstairs to the waiting RV. Jazz handed him a small note while they filed into the vehicle. It was torn, messy, and written in a hastey scribble. Very unlike Jazz. Also unlike Jazz, it only had one sentence.

__I hate this already. __

Danny laughed before he could stop himself and looked over to see his sister smiling at him. Before he could say anything, somebody texted him.

RABBITBOY: I just found out the man you're visiting is __the __Vlad Masters!

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: Like __the __Vlad Masters? The one who does business with my parents sometimes?

RABBITBOY: YOUR PARENTS DO BUSINESS WITH VLAD MASTERS WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS AHHHHHHH

DAHDANMAN: Would you quite screaming and tell me what's so important about this?

RABBITBOY: Vlad Masters is one of the richest men in the world. He's from Wisconsin, I think, so he named his castle the Wisconsin castle. If I remember right, there was a lab accident when he went to college with your parents.

Danny sucked in a breath.

DAHDANMAN: you dont mean like my accident do you?

RABBITBOY: I mean __exactly __like your accident. According to this newspaper article I found your parents and him were working on a prototype for that DNA stockpiler machine that gave you your quirks. I mean, it didn't go exactly the same, Vlad Masters was in the hospital for years. (MESSAGE DELETED)

DAHDANMAN: where do you even get these news articles. Also, would you mind wiping that last text message?

RABBITBOY: sorry… anyways, after he got out of the hospital he started a few small businesses which grew, alot. He's like, filthy stinking' rich. I heard he's obsessed with the Packers, too.

DAHDANMAN: oh, great, anything else?

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: I met him once, back when I was younger. He was actually pretty nice, though he always had the look like he was plotting something.

DAHDANMAN: alright, I'll keep that in mind.


	17. Chapter 17: Good Luck, Daniel

_**HAHHAHHAAHAHAHA!**_

_**-.-**_

"So, turns out this guy that my parents knew in college was a scientist too!" Danny says, packing while he talked to his friends via speakerphone. Sam, surprisingly, seemed really sympathetic. Izuku, unsurprisingly, started asking questions about the scientist's projects and what he studied.

"I need to go you guys, I need to finish parking. And, hey, Izuku?"

-Yep?-

"You got that, uh, thing off the cameras right?"

-Of course! You call while on vacation, right? And take pictures! I've never been on the inside of a castle before.-

"Yeah, of course. Bye, see you both on Monday… or Tuesday."

Danny hurried to stuff some stuff into a bag and ran downstairs to the waiting RV. Jazz handed him a small note while they filed into the vehicle. It was torn, messy, and written in a hastey scribble. Very unlike Jazz. Also unlike Jazz, it only had one sentence.

I hate this already.

Danny laughed before he could stop himself and looked over to see his sister smiling at him. Before he could say anything, somebody texted him.

RABBITBOY: I just found out the man you're visiting is the Vlad Masters!

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: Like the Vlad Masters? The one who does business with my parents sometimes?

RABBITBOY: YOUR PARENTS DO BUSINESS WITH VLAD MASTERS WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS AHHHHHHH

DAHDANMAN: Would you quite screaming and tell me what's so important about this?

RABBITBOY: Vlad Masters is one of the richest men in the world. He's from Wisconsin, I think, so he named his castle the Wisconsin castle. If I remember right, there was a lab accident when he went to college with your parents.

Danny sucked in a breath.

DAHDANMAN: you dont mean like my accident do you?

RABBITBOY: I mean exactly like your accident. According to this newspaper article I found your parents and him were working on a prototype for that DNA stockpiler machine that gave you your quirks. I mean, it didn't go exactly the same, Vlad Masters was in the hospital for years. (MESSAGE DELETED)

DAHDANMAN: where do you even get these news articles. Also, would you mind wiping that last text message?

RABBITBOY: sorry… anyways, after he got out of the hospital he started a few small businesses which grew, alot. He's like, filthy stinking' rich. I heard he's obsessed with the Packers, too.

DAHDANMAN: oh, great, anything else?

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: I met him once, back when I was younger. He was actually pretty nice, though he always had the look like he was plotting something.

DAHDANMAN: alright, I'll keep that in mind.

"Jack… and Yurei! You've never looked lovelier, my dear." Vlad ushered everybody in, but kept his eyes on Yurei. Danny held the door open as Vlad tried to lock Jack outside.

"What's with all the green and gold?" Jazz asked, looking around at the entrance hall. Danny chuckled.

"Jerseys, football helmets? Isn't it obvious Jazz? He's a Packers fanatic."

"Oh, well, fanatic is a rather negative word, but yes." Vlad placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, but moved it away just as quickly. "You're rather cold, my boy, would you like a blanket."

Danny looked away, confused. He wasn't cold, did he seem cold? "Um, I'm fine."

"Wait, I don't get it, you're rich! Why not just buy the team?"

Vlad suddenly looked very angry, hands clenched into fists and teeth grinding. "Because the Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay and they won't sell them to me!" He cleared his throat and regained his cool before turning towards Yurei. "One of two things my wealth has not as of yet... been able to acquire."

Yurei smiled innocently at him.

"Did he just...flirt with mom?" Danny whispered to Jazz. The girl just shrugged.

"If he has working toilets and mom says no, who cares?"

Danny cared, and he made a point to glare at the man. Vlad offered to let everybody stay in the castle, but Jack and Yurei said no. It took both the kids siding with Vlad to convince the parents to agree. For a while, things went smoothly. Jack and Danny were stuck carrying in bags because of their quirks. Jazz and Yurei just busied themselves talking to Vlad.

*"Why do I have to do this? You could easily do it all yourself!" Danny hauled a bag that felt like it was full of dumbbells.

*"Practice my boy, you're gonna have to use those dumbbells everyday if you're gonna be strong like me!"

Danny huffed. Vlad watched carefully as the boy carried the bag that was, apparently, full of dumbbells past him. "No offense dad, but I don't want to be anything like you."

*"What was that? Speak english, son, you know I'm no good with japanese."

*"I said 'Thank You!'"

Danny grumbled as he carried the stuff up the stairs, letting Vlad lead them all to their rooms. Jack and Yurei, then down the hall was Jazz. a floor above them all was Danny, who was set up near a room full of workout equipment.

"So, Danny, I heard you got your father's quirk? How's that working out for you?" Vlad asked as he showed the boy the workout room.

"It'd be better if I wasn't so awkward." Danny walked in, looking around at all the expensive looking machines. He couldn't tell what most of it was, and what he did recognize, he didn't know how to use. "Dad gave me his old stuff, but it's nowhere near as nice as this!"

Vlad chuckled. "You're welcome to use anything you want. It's getting late, though, so try not to stay up too late."

"Well, thanks!" Danny wondered around the room, waiting for him to leave. As soon as Vlad disappeared, he sat on a bench and pulled out his phone.

…

DAHDANMAN: Hey, whatcha doin?

RABBITBOY: I'm reading, just got done training with Sam.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: I totally wiped the floor with him.

RABBITBOY: not everybody has had years of martial arts training.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: true. Hey, how are you doin danny?

DAHDANMAN: ugh, not the best. Ten minutes into arriving and he was flirting with my mom. He's got a cool workout room though, even if i can't use half the stuff.

RABBITBOY: Hey, you should ask about his quirk, he might be able to give you a few pointers without you even needing to give away your identity. (MESSAGE DELETED)

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: that makes no since.

RABBITBOY: Vlad Masters has the ability to turn intangible. When I was going through that machine's database to figure out all the quirks that Danny got, Vlad was one of the people in their. That's why I did so much research on him, actually. Intangibility was the most difficult power for Danny to control. (MESSAGE DELETED)

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: why didn't you tell us about this sooner?

RABBITBOY: you never asked? Is there anything else you'd like me to explain.

DAHDANMAN: uh, guys, remember what I said about talking about sensitive information on the phone?

RABBITBOY: sorry, i'll wipe them out

DAHDANMAN: i've got to go to bed

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: don't blame you, you were stuck in a vehicle with your sister and, worse, your parents for hours.

Danny snapped a picture of the room before leaving.


	18. Chapter 18: bathroom break

A blue mist escaped Danny's mouth, waking him from his sleep. He sat up, glancing around the room for any enemies, only to find there was nobody there. He quickly transformed. Then stuck his head through the walls to look around. Nobody in the hall, outside, or in the rooms next to him. He stuck his head through the floor next. He caught sight of the vulture brothers from a few days ago.

*"Hey, what are you doing?" Danny hissed. When they looked up, he jumped through the floor and landed on top of two of them. With a well placed kick to the stomach of the third one, he had taken them all down. He would've felt guilty about attacking the elderly if he didn't see jack stumbling around up ahead. He was searching for the bathroom in a haze.

Danny quickly picked his dad up and hurried him to the bathroom, plopping him down in front of the open door.

"That was a little to easy," Danny mumbled, standing outside the bathroom door. The vultures were still on the ground, the fight apparently won.

"Ah, bright boy!"

Danny spun around towards the voice. A man hovered above the ground, arms crossed and a smug look on his face. His black and grey hair was pointed into horns and he wore a white suit. A cape waved slightly behind him, the inside red like his eyes. His ears were pointed and face a pale blue, but Danny swore he looked familiar.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me. What are you, a dracula rip off? A villain, I'm guessing, why are you here?"

"I could ask the same of you. Phantom, correct? The vultures were supposed to bring me the great oaf, but you'll do!"

"You...know me?" "Most villains do. The fourteen year old boy with more powers than should be possible. How many? Three? Four?" The villain laughed.

Flight, intangibility, overshadow, invisibility, and energy beams. "Uh, five, I think."

"And yet you haven't used a single one against me. You know I'm a villain, why not attack?" "I don't know what you can do. I've learned my lesson about running into battles without a plan." The villain laughed again. "Somehow I doubt that." The villain leaned back, phasing through the wall. Danny startled, then did the same. The room was a library, warmer and cozier than any he'd ever been in before.

"How'd you do that? I thought your quirk was flight or something?" "Haha! That's hilarious! Tell me, boy, is it true what Skulker told me?" Danny paled, and the villain noticed. "Ah so it is! He said you got your powers from an accident in the Fenton's lab, wouldn't tell me your true identity though."

A beam of energy shot from the villains hand suddenly, hitting the boy in the chest and sending him crashing into a bookshelf.

"S-stay away!" He yelled, shooting at the villain. He merely laughed and raised his hand. A pink shield of energy deflected the attack into the wall near Danny's head.

"Ah, an energy blast, so...year one?"

Danny flew into the air, dodging blasts and throwing some of his own.

"Tell me child, can you do this yet?" The villain duplicated himself into three other copies.

"No I can't! How are __you __doing all this?!"

With four of them now, Danny had no chance of dodging the blasts, and he screamed in pain when he fell out of the air. As he struggled to sit up on his hands and knees, a kick in the gut sent him through the air and against the wall. He gasped for breath and tried to sit up again as one of the copies grabbed the back of his sweatshirt and threw him into the wall again.

For a moment, the only sound in the room came from Danny's coughing and weezing. He phased through the floor during a brief moment of piece, landing with a thud onto the ground in a lab.

"Why?" He groaned, trying to sit up. His ankle was bent at a funny angle, but what really got him was the sharp pain he felt when it popped into place. He cried out and collapsed on the ground, shivering despite how hot it was. He passed out when the villain entered the lab.

Black halos transformed the boy back into Danny Fenton, leaving the villain surprised.

"The Phantom boy is Jack's son?" The villain changed form as well, landing on the ground softly. Vlad Masters was at a loss for words.

"Perhaps… I should've gone easier on him," he mumbled, watching as the boy's broken arm popped back into place. Then he grinned. "Nah."


	19. Chapter 19: angst

Danny woke up outside. His pajamas were messy and caked in dried blood. Even with his enhanced healing, his body ached as he stood. Everything hurt, and he couldn't think of any reason why he should get up.

"Oh, wait, my family could be dead…" Danny shot up, only to immediately collapse to his knees and throw up. It was mostly blood, he must've ruptured something. Didn't matter much, though, since it was probably healed somewhat.

After glancing around he changed form, wincing at how much worse it felt in this form. He could fly, though, and that's all that mattered. He struggled to stay invisible, but he hurried around peeking through windows to make sure everybody was okay. He could've sworn Vlad noticed him when he tried checked to make sure the adult was okay. After that, he hurried to his room and went to the attached bathroom to shower.

He couldn't stand the look of his body, bruised and bloodied to the point where it hurt when the water ran on him. Since his body tended to heal the more serious injuries first, the bruises were still black and blue. Danny, against his better judgment, took a picture of his naked chest in the mirror when he got out of the shower. A couple injuries oozed blood and his lip was busted. He regretted the decision as soon as he sent it to his friends.

He shuffled through the small first aid kit Sam had insisted he pack, then quickly bandaged up any injuries still weeping.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: OMG ARE YOU ALRIGHT

WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING?

DANNY ANSWER ME

RABBITBOY: Did you manage to patch yourself up?

DAHDANMAD: I'm fine.

Wish you were here! (*Thumbs up emoji*)

Danny limped into his room, changing into some jeans and a Present Mic shirt Izuku had bought him. Danny couldn't judge, everybody had something they obsessed over, Izuku's was heroes.

With clothing picked out and his messy hair somewhat tamed, Danny made his way down the stairs. He hid his mouth and wandered around looking for food while people began coming in. it was nearly noon, and his parents hadn't seemed to have noticed their son missing. And, when they did spot him, the busted lip and bruised eye did raise any concern.

"Oh, Danny, looky here!"

Danny flinched when his mother grabbed his shoulder, then pulled away, darting into the crowd. Yurei watched after him, confused for a moment then shrugging it off.

Danny soon found himself in a theatre, lights down and grainy black and white tapes playing. They were all about the Packers though. He limped down the row until a hand shot out and grabbed his clothes.

"Danny? What happened?" Jazz asked as she pulled him into the seat beside him. "Oh, not much, just an accident in the workout room." Danny laughed nervously and looked away to try and hide his bruised eye.

"Hmm… okay." It was obvious she didn't believe him, but she let the subject drop anyways. "Um… did you know the Packers won the very first Super Bowl? I mean, I don't care much about that, but I thought you might like to know." "Why would I… like to know that exactly?" Danny asked. Jazz turned back to the screen just in time to not noticed the blue mist that escaped Danny's mouth. "You knew about the Packers before I did, so I just figured you were into the sport."

"Oh, is that so?" Vlad said. Danny startled and jumped up. "I didn't realize you were a fan!"

"Uh, well, yeah, a little bit. I watch it on YouTube sometimes but we can't really get the channels on our TV because it's too expensive… I-I should go, um…"

"Oh, yes, of course. Enjoy the reunion." He turned his attention to Jazz as Danny left. "And you, my dear, are you having fun?"

Danny didn't hear the rest of the conversation before he was limping along. He wondered momentarily if his leg healed wrong. Could that happen? DAHDANMAN: is it possible for my leg to have healed wrong?

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: what did you do?

"UUuuugHgggghHHh," Danny groaned as he plopped himself down on the floor in the hallway and laid down. "Just answer the question, jeeze!"

A blue mist escaped him and he pushed himself upright just in time to see Vlad coming down the hall. "Is there a problem here?"

"My friend is being weird, it's nothing. How are you… did you, uh, sleep well?"

"In fact, I did, had a dream about a ghost flying around in football gear." Danny sighed and gave him a small smile.

"That's good. I should get going, mom was trying to introduce me to people earlier." The boy stood and hurried off. The sound of everybody speaking in english confused him for a moment before he remembered that his parents went to college in the states. His mom found him quickly and waved him towards her and a young woman with dark hair and ram horns.

"Danny, meet Harriet Chin."

Apparently Harriet was Japanese, or at least understood it, because she understood everything they said.

"Ah, yes, young Danny Fenton. Your mother was just telling me how your quirk developed extremely late. I did a story about a boy who's quirk wasn't noticed until he was a teen. Perhaps you've heard of him?"

"Uh… I think he was Russian, right. He had a quirk that let him understand other languages, but he didn't know because nobody in his household spoke anything else."

"Precisely. And you? How did yours go unnoticed?"

"I suppose, whenever I broke something or did something weird I just assumed it was damaged already or there was some sort of fluke. It wasn't until I picked up both my friends that we realized something was up."

Yurei listened intently, having not heard much from her son on this subject. Lately he'd been keeping so much a secret, and she wanted to know as much as possible. Perhaps… was it as simple as just asking him.

"So you-" Yurei began.

*"Danny, my boy!" Jack said, running over. Danny felt the floor shake and he prepared himself for a fight out of reflex. *"You met Harry? She's a big-shot reporter for the Milwaukee Journal now, but back in my college days she was just Harry. Harry Chin! Haha! Get it?!" Danny sighed.*"Yes dad, I get it."

"I'm so sorry Harry." Yurei sighed. Jack gave her a confused look. Out of all the years spent in Japan, had he learned nothing of the language?!

"You married him, you should be."

A new, strange song began playing and Jack pulled Yurei onto the floor. He runs into people, and Danny found himself hiding his face. "Well, it's official, I'm mortified. I can see why Jazz pretends she not related to us."

"I'm surprised you aren't doing the same."

Danny huffed a laugh before giving her a small wave and limping away. He had more important things to do than chat with his parents old college buddies, like surfing the web. He did a search on hid alter ego, like he did often. So far, the name Phantom was sticking better than Inviso-Bill, thanks to Izuku's help. Mostly all that popped up online were some theories trying to guess at his powers. Since he was somewhat unknown still, citizens didn't know much about him besides that he can turn invisible and fly.

DAHDANMAN: you guys figure out anything about the heroes' plans to catch Phantom?

RABBITBOY: I think it would be best to wait until after you return. I really don't want to waste your vacation.

DAHDANMAN: I don't GET vacations, now spill.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: it was his idea, I swear!

DAHDANMAN: what did u do?

RABBITBOY: i got Phantom's case file… Virtually. (MESSAGE DELETED)

DAHDANMAN: did you get caught? Trouble? I could fly over and be there in, like, an hour.

RABBITBOY: no it's fine. By the way, why are we discussing this? Isn't it you who's always talking about sensitive information being on the phones bad?

DAHDANMAN: ugh, your right. Oh, I've got an idea.

Danny signed out and jumped up, sneaking back into the party. A woman standing by the punch bowl alone seemed to be drowning away her sorrows with spiked punch. She didn't even notice Danny phase a hand through her purse and pull out her phone. He snuck away again and hurried to the theater where nobody would bother him. He curled up on the floor between seats, hidden off to the right side of the room.

-: It's me, Danny, now spill.

RABBITBOY: did you steal some poor person's phone?

-: We have more important things to do, now spill.

RABBITBOY: hold on I'm adding Sam.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: you're gonna return that phone when you're done, right?

RABBITBOY: all the heroes in the city have been made aware of you and have been ordered to arrest you on sight.

-: penciltop really shouldn't be turning the heroes against me.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: it wasn't his idea. After the whole thing with Skulker, and then when you used your energy beam in public, the heroes realized you're powers are popping up at random.

RABBITBOY: they're afraid of you.

-: and they should be. I'm so angry right now i could just ugh!

RABBITBOY: ugh?

-: UGH

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: Ughhuggguuuuughhhh stop complaining and go back to the party

Danny hurried the delete the text string than hurried to return it to its owner. Before he could leave the theater, though, a blue mist escaped his mouth and he crouched into a fighting position.

"Hello, son, I was wondering if you would do me a _huuuuuge _favor." Vlad said, eyes flicking towards the boy's odd stance. Danny relaxed when he saw who it was.

"Yeah, sure Mr. Masters."

"Great. Now, could you go to my lab, the second door on the right upstairs? There's a present in there for your father that I'd like you to bring down."

"Sure." Danny hurried off, glad to be away from everybody. It didn't take long before he was to the lab, but he hesitated at the door. He remembered the night before all too well. Upon entering, he noticed a spot on the ground where he'd passed out. He knew that was the place, too, because the blood hadn't been cleaned up.

"Why didn't he-?" a blue mist escaped, sending him on high alert. Before he could do anything, a net shot out.

"Miss me?" A familiar voice said. Skulker stepped out from his hiding spot by a large machine.

The net didn't last long. Danny stretched as much as possible, ripping a hole through it.

"Hey, catch!" Danny, like a kid, immediately caught the small, black cube thrown at him. It immediately unfurled and wrapped itself around his wrists.

"Hey! I can't phase out of this!" "Haha! There's more to it than that, whelp."

The hunter pressed a button on his wrist and the cuffs began electrocuted the boy. Danny screamed in pain and collapsed to the floor, thrashing around. His back arched and he began slamming his wrists against the ground in an attempt to get them off. His head felt fuzzy, and he tried not to think about it…

Electricity wasn't bad, don't think about it…

It was an unfortunate event, don't remember it…

It'll be okay…

But it wasn't, and, even when the torture paused, Danny couldn't help but remember how painful it was the first time.

Skulker lifted him up by the collar and pulled him up. "Frightened? Good!" Danny's breathing was quick and his eyes darted around the room. After a moment, the hunter's smile faded when he noticed the boy's eyes weren't really _seeing _anything. He shook the boy, but the tears in Danny's eyes were the only response he got.

"Enough! I hired you to trap the boy, not kill him!"

"As if I'd have fun killing my prey when they're in this state." Skulker dropped the boy to the ground where he shook and continued viewing the room with unseeing eyes.

"Leave us." Vlad demanded. The hunter did as he was told, leaving Vlad to study the boy rocking slightly on the ground. "It's a good thing I keep this down here." He picked up a water bottle at his workstation and dumped it over the boy's head. Thanks to the mask, Danny didn't choke on anything, but he did sit up rather quickly.

"T-there was Skulker and-and you-"

"Yes, yes, I get it. You're confused. Of course you are! You're, what, fourteen? To young to drive and barely out of secondary school! I sent those vultures to test your idiot father's skills, imagine when I find _you. _"

"Me? What about me?"

"You're the second person in this world that was given artificial powers by your father." Something clicked in the boy's mind. The villain from last night had the same powers, and Vlad had gone through a similar accident in college.

"Oh no," the boy mumbled, watching as Vlad changed his form into that of the villain from the night before.

_"I wish Sam and Izuku were here."_


	20. Chapter 20: For Family

Daniel was panicking, Vlad could tell. From the way the child's eyes were darting around the room, to the way he pushed away from the adult with his good leg. Vlad had long since forgotten what it felt like to break bones, he hadn't gotten into a dangerous fight in almost ten years. And now, seeing the odd angle Danny's leg was pointing, he could tell it hadn't healed properly. In all honesty, he knew he should've left the boy in a bedroom, not the woods.

When the boy had backed into the wall finally, Vlad stopped moving forth and instead transformed. Daniel flinched away, remembering the night before.

"Let me go!"

"Why? So you can go back to stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of your powers? Powers, by the way, that I've had for twenty years." Vlad began demonstrating his powers. Pink shield, invisibility, then split. "I have experience, my child. And the money and power attained through using those powers for personal gain, you see." He split himself into three. "I could train you, teach you everything I know. And all you'd have to do... is renounce your idiot father." His duplicates slowly faded back into him and he lowered to the ground.

* "Fuckin' Fruitloop."

* "You know I can speak english too, right."

"Go to hell, I'll never join you."

"You say that now, but we'll see how you'll feel when your father is out of the way."

Danny fought the urge to scream as Vlad disappeared from the room.

-**_**_\- Danny's POV (Because I've been wanting to do this for a while)_**_**

My head hurt more than it had a right to. It's my head, I should decide when it ached. My leg hurt too, but it was nothing more than a dull throb I had long since gotten used to. Pain was bad, but being locked in a basement while a raging sociopath was hunting you father is much, much worse.

I stood on shaky legs, glad that I was at least still in Phantom form.

"When do I get a vacation?" I grumbled as I bashed my handcuffs against the wall beside me. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. The metal dug into my wrists to the point were they bled and dripped off. So, I got a new idea.

"Come on, come on, come on…" I muttered as I put my foot against the small space between the cuffs and pushed, pulling on my arms at the same time. The blood from the cuts made my hands slick and I was able to pull my hands through, though my gloves came off as well. I didn't bother putting them back on before flying up and through the ceiling. I hurried to the ballroom, hoping Vlad hadn't caused too much damage. I was wrong, of course.

The screaming seemed familiar to me, and I couldn't shake away the panic that came upon seeing the crowd running out of the building. The only ones who stayed behind was Harriet and my parents. The reporter held a camera up and was video taping my dad as he wreaked havoc in the ballroom.

He turned and stared at my mom near the entrance/ exit and I saw the way his eyes glowed blood red.

"He's being possessed!" I screamed at my mother. She startled and turned towards me. I watched as her worry twisted into rage.

"YOU!"

Before I could ask why she suddenly hated me, I flew towards a flying table and smashed it in half before it could hit Harriet.

"Phantom! Tell me, who is possessing Jack?"

"I don't- I'm not sure! Why are you still here? Get out! Run!"

The reporter distraction me, and I didn't notice as Vlad darted towards us. A hand gripped the back of the shirt and I felt him hoist me into the air and slam me into the ground. My vision fuzed and I worried I would transform back into Fenton if I blacked out. My head hurt, there was something happening but I couldn't tell what.

Everything was ringing and there were stars dancing in my vision. As I laid in the head shaped dent, I found myself searching for constellations. I didn't find any, and eventually got distracted by the warm, sticky liquid filling my ears and matting my hair together.

"__I should've put my hood up."__

The sight of a woman kneeling down beside me caught my attention. She was crying and shaking me, her camera hanging around her neck. One of her horns was broken, and there was blood leaking out and dripping down her face.

_"___Why's she crying__?"

Something grabbed her good horn and yanked her away.

"Help, help me! Phantom wake up!" She refused to let go, and on instinct I turned us intangible, slipping through the ground. We landed with a thud, but she made the effort to cradle my head in her arms.

"__Where are we?"__

"Phantom, get up! Please, you need to wake up!"

I Found myself sitting up, and hearing her gasp when she saw the back of my head. It was bad… it must've been bad… right?

"I'm up… Akuyaki fight it… Oyasuminasai."

I flew back up into the ballroom, landing right between Vlad and Jazz.

"Get away from my sister!" I yelled, socking him in the face.

_"___Wait… oh fuck__."

"Daniel, stop. Think about the things I could show you, the doors I could open for you. You, Phantom, and I, Plasmius. Together, we could rule!"

"Can it, fruit loop, your money can't buy my mom, the Packers, or me!"

I attacked, drawing his attention to me as I flew higher into the air and then darted to the other side of him. I watched as Jazz ran over to mom and they both fled from the room.

"I know who you are, I'll tell everybody!"

"And so will I! You expose me, and I'll expose you!"

"AHHHGGGGHH!" I screamed in frustration, darting into my father's body and pushing Vlad out. We both went flying through the air, leaving Jack to collapse on the ground.

*"Nobody uses Jack as a meat puppet!" my dad yelled, but I didn't see what he did next because Vlad threw me into a wall.

I coughed as the wind got knocked out of me and my still-sensitive head hit the brick. There was a crash and my spinning head could barely process that the Fenton RV had been driven through the walls and into the ballroom. I stood shakily as Vlad phased into the vehicle and pull my mom out.

"Mom!" I cried, but nobody heard. Lucky, too.

"Let go of me!" My mom yelled, kicking at Vlad. She pulled up into the air and my dad began chasing after them while Vlad flew higher into the air.

I found myself in the driver's seat of the vehicle, trying to figure the stick shift out. Harriet was in the backseat, taping everything.

"How'd you get in here? You know what- nevermind. How does this work?"

She quickly explained how to drive it, then buckled herself into the passenger seat as I started forward. Her camera remained on the fight ahead.

"And I wasn't going to come to this thing! Ha!" But her eyes darted over to me, then to the blood on the back of my head. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine!"

I swerved the RV to a stop right below where mom was being dangled by Vlad and slammed a big red button on the dashboard. I remember when I was given a tour of the RV for the first time. Weapons were built into the vehicle, all of which were built to stun or capture any threat. They wouldn't attack anybody who was in the Fenton family though.

The first couple shots were easily dodged, but a small ball of electricity hit Vlad in the chest and threw him backwards. I phased through the vehicle just in time to catch mom before she could hit the ground. I quickly let her down and hovered between my parents and Vlad.

"Give it up, Plasmius. If you don't stop now, I swear I'll expose us both. Agree to a truce"

"Your bluffing!" Vlad hovered a tad bit higher, glaring down at me.

"Try me! My parents will accept me no matter what-" I hoped that was true "-but what'll she think of you?"

Vlad's face contorted into something like worry. "Use your opponents weakness against them, I've taught you well. Fine, truce. Eventually you will come to my side, you and her both."

He gave a mock bow and surrounded himself in a green mist while laughing. Even after he'd vanished, his laughter echoed around the ballroom. I remember thinking that a nap was a good idea before phasing up through the ceiling.


	21. Chapter 21: I never liked hospitals

**_long chapter_**

**_messy chapter_**

**_little ball of _****HUAGH**

**_Happy chapter_**

**_sad chapter_**

**_BURN BURN BURN_**

-.-

Jazz shook her brother awake, staring at the injuries with worry. He was in the hallway near the theater. She'd followed bloody handprints that showed somebody using the wall for support.

"Mom, dad! Help!" She yelled as she rolled her brother onto his back. He was breathing, but the injury to the back of his head must've knocked him out. Err, well, that's what she assumed. There was a bit of debris in this area, but she couldn't decipher what happened. Luckily somebody had called the ambulance the moment Jack seemed to lose his mind, so they would be there soon. Jack and Yurei soon got there and began first aid, rapping his head up and searching for any other injuries.

"Jazz, go down and ask if Mr. Wilbert could come help, I'm pretty sure he's a doctor. Or, at least, some sort of nurse." Yurei directed.

For the next ten minutes there was a bustle around everybody as they tended to injuries and worried about the fourteen year old boy with a cracked skull.

Danny woke up to his phone ringing. Sam and Izuku had both been trying to reach him for hours after hearing about the attack they were panicking that he hadn't answered them yet, mostly because nobody had informed them of their friend's condition. They assumed the worst, and Danny felt a ping of guilt about it.

DAHDANMAN: chill guys, I'm fine. A little beat up, but fine.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR HOURS!

RABBITBOY: he must've had a good reason for not answering.

DAHDANMAN: they said my head got cracked open by debris falling on me. Also, messed up ankle, they think it's from some sort of quirk healing it wrong.

RABBITBOY: was it?

DAHDANMAN: Plasmius broke it.

SAMTHEPSYCHIC: I'M NEVER LETTING YOU OUTTA MY SIGHT AGAIN

Danny couldn't help but chuckle. A soft knock at his door caught his attention and he looked across the room to look. Harriet stood in the doorway, looking inside. She smiled at him, relieved.

"Good morning, Danny."

"Harriet? What are you doing here?"

She slowly walked in, closing the door behind her.

"I just… wanted to make sure you were alright. I, um, wanted to apologize."

Danny tried to think to what she was talking about.

"Regardless of my job I shouldn't have just stood there. And you, a fourteen year old boy, shouldn't have had to save me."

Danny paled. She knew. _"She knows." _She could turn him in. _"She'll ruin my life." _She's apologizing, why? _"No, she already told. It's over… it's over…" _

"I promise to keep it a secret, as a thank you for what you did for me. But, on one condition."

"Yes, anything!"

"You never become like that Plasmius fellow. I heard what he said, and I want you to swear you'll never join him." Danny couldn't help but huff a laugh.

"You kidding? Join the guy trying to steal my mom? As if. I promise. Can't tell you his name though, it's part of the truce."

Harriet just nodded. "Well, good luck and I hope you get better. I would've bought you a card, but I've been talking to police so I didn't have time." She slid out of the room, leaving Danny you smile after her.

_"What a nice reporter." _

Eraserhead looked over the video. Tsukauchi refused to watch it a second time, so his eyes were squeezed shut and face turned away.

The hero flinched as the boy was thrown into the ground. He lost consciousness momentarily as the villain slammed the back of the boy's head into the ground a couple more times. When the villain, whoever it was possessing Jack, turned to the reporter, the camera was dropped to lay limp on her chest. There was a shrill scream as the villain grabbed her, but they couldn't see what he did. If Eraserhead hadn't already met the woman he wouldn't have known one of her horns had been broken.

The video shows Jack lumbering off towards a cornered Yurei before the reporter darts to Phantom.

_"Wake up, wake up! Are you alright? Look at me!" _the reporter shook the boy slightly and his eyes slowly looked towards her. A large shadow suddenly appeared over them and something yanked the reporter backwards, but she didn't let go of the boy.

_"Help, help me! Phantom wake up!" _

The boy gripped her and they both fell through the floor and into a lab below the ballroom. The reporter caught his head, but, besides that, they both landed on the floor painfully.

_"Phantom get up! Please, you need to wake up!" _

He did as she said and Eraserhead's gasp matched the reporters. The entire back of his head was bloody. It was bad, but he still managed to stand and talk, even if it was a bilingual mess. Something about fighting a villain and… good night?

He flew upwards into the ceiling and disappeared. Eraserhead paused the video while the reporter was looking around. A pair of black handcuffs sat near a wall, covered with blood.

"What are those?"

"Quirk suppressing cuffs, it seems. The Fenton's have been working on some, but they don't work. These ones are designed for particular quirks. The blood is Phantom's we think. They're in the lab, I'll let you know when or if something's found."

Eraserhead nodded and pressed play on the video.

The reporter hurried upstairs and met Jazz and Yurei in the hall. Jazz went looking for Danny upstairs, Yurei and the reporter went to the RV. Jack joined them and they all went through a wall and into the ballroom.

Phantom was leaning against the wall, seemingly having been thrown into it. He cried out something as Plasmius phased through the vehicle and pulled Yurei out. There was some commotion before Phantom slipped into the vehicle.

_"How'd you get in here? You know what- nevermind. How does this work?" _

The reporter quickly explained.

_"And I wasn't going to come to this thing, ha! Hey, are you alright?" _the vehicle moved forward and Eraserhead caught a glimpse of Phantom's annoyed expression. Even if only his eyes showed, you could see the fire in them.

_"I'm fine!" _

"He's definitely not 'fine'." Eraserhead muttered. The detective laughed wryly. The rest of the video was somewhat shaky, distorted, and cut off randomly. The reporter claimed that the camera was damaged. Phantom made a truce with the villain. The attack would end, Phantom wouldn't expose them both.

"The villain must've really wanted to keep his identity a secret." Tsukauchi said when the video finally ended with Phantom phasing up into the ceiling.

"And Phantom seems willing to do anything to keep others safe."

A lot of what was said in the conversation between Phantom and Plasmius was muffled, but the troubling "my parents will accept me no matter what" had been a total lie. Tsukauchi's power didn't work through videos, but he could see how the boy began fiddling with his jacket whenever he lied.

"Witnesses, Daniel Fenton was among them, right?" Eraserhead asked. The detective looked away.

"Yes, but he's in the hospital. Concussion, doesn't remember much of the attacks." There was that unspoken conclusion between them again, the same one they'd experienced only a couple times before. That first time they met Daniel at the mall, then again after the whole Skulker thing.

"Daniel Fenton is our primary suspect," Tsukauchi clarified.


	22. Chapter 22: dodging detectives

Time is a strange thing for a child. Some days last forever, some go by quickly. For Daniel Fenton, today was taking forever.

See, he'd been in the hospital for three days. Now, after all that time successfully dodging the detectives and policemen wanting to ask questions, he was finally home. Except, as soon as he arrived, he noticed annoyed looking Sam and Izuku sitting on the front steps. They quickly informed him that Tsukauchi and Eraserhead were planning to come today and question him finally. He was out of the hospital, he had no reason to deny them.

So, with loud groans and heavy feet, the boy lead his friends up the stairs to his bedroom. It looked normal inside. Normal sized bed, normal hand-me-down weightset, normal everything. He plopped down face first into the bed.

Barely a minute passed before somebody knocked on the front door, another two minutes before Jazz was knocking at Danny's.

"Danny, detective Tsukauchi and a hero are here to talk to you," she said as she poked her head into his room. Danny just groaned.

"I have a headache, tell them to just come up here."

Another minute before the two adults entered, followed by Jazz who stood on the weightset seat. Sam and Izuku made a point to sit on either side of Danny, glaring at the adults.

"Ask away," Danny mumbled into his pillow.

"Can you tell me what happened to your leg?" Eraserhead asked first.

"That villain stepped on it, I think, then threw me into a wall."

"And I'm assuming that's how you got the concussion?" tsukauchi asked. He wrote everything that was said in his notebook, word for word.

"It's a safe assumption."

"But you don't know?"

"My memories are foggy and fractured. To be honest, I can't even remember if I ate breakfast that morning, and I have a vague memory of wandering around the woods but I don't know why."

"Can you tell us if Plasmius ever handcuffed you?" Eraserhead looked up at the ceiling, looking at the various stars and planets.

"Why would he do that? And, even if he did, my memory is really shady right now, it's possible I'd forget."

"Just answer the damn question," the hero sighed.

"Yes, maybe. He might've handcuffed me, I suppose, my wrists were bruised when I woke up in the hospital. Not that bad, though."

"Danny, would you mind telling your sister to leave, we have something to ask you." Tsukauchi looked towards Jazz still glaring at them. Danny sighed and sat up against his headboard. He shooed his sister out and she left with nothing more than a sigh of protest.

"Right, let's cut to the chase. Daniel Fenton, we know you're Phantom." Eraserhead crossed his arms as he spoke. He'd expected some defiance, maybe the boy would use his powers. But there was nothing. Then, suddenly, after an awkward silence, they all burst into laughter.

In their laughter, Sam took the chance to close her eyes and activate her quirk.

"I mean, I figured they come to that conclusion but it's still hilarious!" Izuku said through his laughter. "Play along," the boy whispered in their group chat.

"Yeah, alright, I'll play along." Danny said as he calmed down. Sam hid her face in his shoulder and continued giggling. "Ask away."

"How did you meet Plasmius?"

"He beat me to a pulp, next!"

Tsukauchi began writing quickly as the hero rattled off questions.

"What did the villain say after you shot him and caught your mother?"

"Hmm… something about a truce. There was a video. Harriet took it, right?" Danny noticed Eraserhead's eyes flash with some sort of fury.

"You nearly died, yet all you can think about is keeping your parents from finding out your secret?"

Danny flinched, then looked away. His ever- present smug look disappeared. "I… heard a story once about how they fed their curiosity in America… If somebody had a quirk they deemed interesting, they would bribe or blackmail the person into letting them experiment and examine the quirk. It wasn't against the law, so my parents continued messing with quirks even after they disfigured their lab partner."

Izuku and Sam wrapped an arm over Danny's shoulder as he stared off into space, aka letting his eyes drift among the stars of his ceiling with a dead expression.

"If I was Phantom, who's to say they won't do the same to me?" There was silence throughout the room until Danny's dead eyes moved to rest on the hero's. "Makes me glad I was born without a quirk, Jazz had a much harder time."

A ghost of a smile sat on the boy's face, but the hero suddenly worried over the sister more. Mental quirks, especially intelligence ones, often showed at much younger ages. "Have your parents… ever abused you or your sister?"

"No, not on purpose, at least."

"And… have any of their experiments ever caused lasting damage?"

"That's enough!" Sam said, jumping up. Thank you for your concern, but I don't think inducing a panic attack is a good idea when he's just gotten out of the hospital!"

The adults both looked towards the boys still on the bed as Sam continued trying to shoo them out of the room. Danny was hunched over, breathing heavily as he hid his face from the world. Izuku was rubbing his back, trying his best to keep Danny calm.

The door flung open as Jazz entered. She took one look at Danny then glared at the hero and detective. "Get out."

The adults finally stepped out and let Jazz slam the door closed in their face, locking herself inside the room with her brother and his friends.

"What the hell?" Tsukauchi whispered in surprise at the sudden turn of events.

Nezu was asked to help with the case, but he only agreed to join when he heard it had something to do with the Fenton family. Looking over everything including the things said during the meeting and listening to how Danny reacted, he couldn't help the hatred in his heart. He'd been monitoring the Fentons and their projects closely, worried that they'd eventually let their curiosity rule over their morals.

Turns out, it had been happening for years.

He had openly suggested that Jazz study under him the first time they met. It was- what?- a year ago? No, not that long. Danny was never around, usually in the lab or at a friend's house. Nezu didn't think it was important to reach out to the boy at the time. Quirkless, average grades, and practically antisocial. Jazz was the true star of the family. Young, yet more intelligent than most adults. Her quirk heightened her senses to allow more information in, making her great for detective work. She was also good at self defence, having taken classes in it along with numerous other subjects to satisfy her curiosity. Though, even with her intelligence and fighting skills, she was set on being a child psychologist rather than a hero or detective.

Danny, though, Nezu wracked his brain for any information he might have. Danny had two best friends… had a strength quirk that showed up way later than it should've with no explanation and decided to hide it rather than tell his parents… preferred to spend time outside of the house and, from what Jazz said, wouldn't go down into the lab with his parents for the past four-ish months. There was something else, something he was missing.

Eraserhead stared at him from across Nezu's desk. Nezu had a smile, but it appeared more… murderous than usual.

"It seems the Fentons have secrets that need to be looked into!" Nezu, no doubt, would begin immediately. Humans, after all, never change.

The first of the secrets Nezu discovered was how the Fentons had set up their proudest achievement: The Fenton Quirk Database. It was actually a machine that, if you step inside it with your quirk activated, was supposed to pull out a few of the quirk cells and stockpile them. It was a strange concept, not to mention sounding much more painful and dangerous than it actually was. They could get the same result by taking a blood sample or cheek swab.

When asking the Fentons for files on everybody they had used for the stockpile. They handed them over with smiles on their face. Nezu, sitting on Eraserhead's shoulder, struggled not to let his hatred show.

It didn't take long for Nezu to see the pattern between the quirks shown in the files and what Phantom had. There were a couple, however, that Nezu and the others on the case file hadn't seen Phantom use.

Most of the people were also missing or dead. A young boy named Poindexter from America went missing only a couple months after meeting the Fentons. His quirk was overshadow, which allowed him to possess people. However, his victim would have his eye color, red.

Melena Elemental, whose family was known for being powerful heroes. Their quirk was all the same, a core where their heart should be. It did all the same things as a heart, along with some things a heart couldn't. While most people with a core have a single, predetermined power, the cores of the Elemental family's is a blank slate, capable of being anything the person comes in contact with. While Phantom had not been shown to use one of the many elements, Plasmius had. Fire, apparently, which means that seeing as he had all the other quirks in the file, the villain must've come in contact with the machine at one point or another.

Nezu doesn't usually worry about people as much as he did for Phantom and Danny.


	23. Chapter 23: The Grey

Valerie Grey once met a woman who would do anything to satisfy her curiosity. She would play games or experiment with things that were still alive. She wasn't evil, though, or mean in any way. She would give young Valerie chocolate and send her off.

Valerie would see the woman's son, Danny. Coloring pictures of the moon as she walked out of the house. They were about the same age, four, maybe five…

Valerie wanted to speak to him, to say hello and ask to join, but mommy said she wasn't aloud to talk.

_"Your quirk is dangerous Valerie." "You'll hurt him, girl." "Your quirk is evil."_

Papa was never like that, but mama ruled the household. That's why Valerie was forced to wear a muzzle.


	24. Chapter 24: It's Bakugo w better breath

_**Cujo is blond**_

Valerie is in a band. It's not much, and the kids aren't good with their instruments, but Valerie's quirk can be used to carry her voice. She's studied Present Mic for years, watching videos and even getting in touch with him for help with her quirk. It's only been three years since her father finally made enough money to split from her mother. Three years since she was finally able to take off the muzzle.

The thin pale scars on her mouth and chin make her heart sink every time she looks in the mirror, so she's kept them covered for years.

For somebody who couldn't speak until she was ten, Valerie's voice was always clear and confident. Even if she pronounces something wrong, or stutters slightly, she keeps her head high and continues on with whatever she had to say.

Today, however, Valerie is having difficulties. She was having a "problem day" where her tiredness makes her quirk slip. Even though she was technically having a conversation with Paulina, her mouth stayed closed.

Danny ran down the hall, trying in vain to escape Bakugou.

"Come back Fenton! I'll teach you what happens when you ignore me!"

Danny couldn't understand why Izuku still looked up to the arrogant bastard. Rounding a corner, Danny ran straight into Valerie Grey. She shrieked as they fell to the ground and her uniform was soaked in the drink she'd been holding.

She glared at the boy, then looked to her shirt and back again. "What the hell Fenton?!" "Sorry, I-" Bakugo came around the corner finally, barely able to bring himself to a stop before he could trip on them and fall as well. He grabbed the back of Danny's shirt and yanked him up. In less than a second Danny switched from flight to fight and kneed Bakugou in the groin.

"I'm not a fucking punching bag!" He kicked the bully in the gut before turning and running off, leaving everybody in the hall flabbergasted.

"Well… he's got a point," Valerie said before walking away as well. School was out, might as well head home.

A panting Danny stopped running when he was a block from school, taking a break to sit against the wall of an alley and catch his breath. A small, blonde puppy poked its head out of some trash near a dumpster.

"Wow, why are you in the trash?" He stepped forward and the puppy came forward. Its fur was matted and messy, obviously a stray. He gently picked it up. "You're like Bakugo with better breath!"

The puppy suddenly growled and, with a puff of white smoke, got giant. Danny crouched and changed form, staring up at the giant dog that was now growling down at him. "Or not!"

Danny gripped onto the fur by the dog's stomach as it shot passed him and out into the street. "Run, move! Yahh Gggghhhh!" He yelled as the dog plowed through vehicles and ran through buildings. When it ran through a store, Danny was able to grab a long chain used for towing vehicles. Packaging was no trouble, he just phased through and pulled it out.

"Sorry 'bout this!" He yelled before throwing the chain over the dog's head and hooking an end for a make-shift leash. He yanked, using his strength and flight ability to try and slow the animal. It worked, mostly, and the dog shrank back into a puppy, leaving the chain to pool around him.

"Man, you're one tuff puppy!" Danny knelt down, picking the pup up in one arm and beginning to wrap the chain up with the other. "I think I'll name you Cujo."

Cujo was a pain in the ass for the next two hours.

Damon Grey likes to think he's doing the world a favor by working in this research lab. Sure, it's not run by the most… humane people, but there are worse places to work. As head of security, Damon is in charge of making sure nobody can break in. He had the entire building rigged with so many security measures they could probably have a small army if they wanted. Citizens in Japan aren't allowed to own guns, but there was no law against the security measures.

Valerie looked around the lab with mild disinterest, but certain shiny items would catch her interest.

As he gives the tour and points out anything he'd put in. "Digital surveillance, retinal scanning access portals, titanium doors, laser deturents, Fenton Finders. As promised, this is the most secure facility in all of Japan." Damon was particularly proud of the Fenton Finders, a brand new piece of technology that would detect quirks. They had gotten anybody who worked at the lab along with him and his daughter, Valerie, to let the machine scan them before it was installed.

There was a short discussion about the fee, then a snide comment about dogs. Apparently the boss didn't like the old security dogs.

"Don't worry, those dogs were taken care of," and by that Damon meant he had no idea where they went. One guy said in passing that the dogs were left at an animal shelter, another said they were just left in an alley. Nobody seemed to know exactly what happened to them. The only thing that seemed to stay the same was that one of the pups had actually been a test subject.

Strange.

Loud barking stole their attention. The titanium doors were slowly bent inwards before being thrown off to one side. A giant blond dog jumped over their heads and flecked slobber all over them and ran off. Phantom screamed when he lost his hold on the leash and landed harshly on the ground at their feet.

"What are you!" Valerie screached, flicking away drool with disgust.

"I'll tell you what I'm __not __, and that's covered in dog saliva." Phantom jumped up and flew off after the dog, who had taken to knocking down doors. Lasers bounced off his fur and he could easily dodge the nets.

Even with Damon trying his best, Cujo didn't stop until Phantom threw him through a wall and outside.

"I'm fired, aren't I," Damon asked among the ruin of the building.

"You're not just fired, you're ruined."


	25. Chapter 25: GoSH DaRn DOg

"Look, okay, it wasn't my fault! I have no idea what's up with this dog!" Danny held the dog up to show Eraserhead. He'd come after the vigilante only minutes after the lab was destroyed. Sam and Izuku were on the way, he'd called them for backup.

"Come on, Penciltop, you really think I'd destroy that place on purpose?"

"I think you don't like labs all that much." Danny groaned.

"Fine, don't believe me? I'll prove I'm right." He slowly set the dog down and pulled off a shoe. The boy yelled "Cujo, fetch!" and promptly through the shoe straight over the hero's head. Mid jump the dog transformed, earning a startled look from Eraserhead.

"You were telling the truth," he sighed, relieved. Honestly, he hadn't wanted to believe Danny could cause trouble. Cujo began shredding the boot and danny hurried to wrestle the shoe from it.

"So, do you know what I can do?"

"Animals with quirks are extremely rare. In all my life I've only ever known of two. Nezu, and a cat in America that can stick to anything."

"Sounds neat, now tell me what I can do."

"That's the thing, kid, I don't know. I've never dealt with this before. I'll talk to Nezu, though, he can help."

"Fine, just talk to Danny. I'm probably gonna pawn this problem off on him."

Valerie stared around their apartment. They'd never had much, using most of the extra money her father earned for speech and music classes. Now the money that would usually go to her classes went to paying the bills instead. She didn't even have her band, she quit in order to get a part time job to help her dad.

She stared at the newspaper she was holding. It didn't say anything about how Phantom had destroyed the lab a couple days before. A picture of the vigilante being dragged down the streets by his dog was the front cover instead.

She growled and ripped the paper in half, then in half again. It soon became confetti that she dumped into the trash. She contemplated burned the pages but was distracted by the doorbell.

"Hello?" She said, poking her head out of the apartment. A small box sat right outside the door, her name written neatly on top. Inside was a note.

__Heard about your recent troubles. Hope this'll help. -Vlad __

"Vlad? Who's Vlad?" Valerie pulled a pistol out of the box, then chuckled. "Don't know who you are, Vlad, but if this thing can do what I think it can, I can't say I care."

She fiddled with the pistol until it suddenly went off and shot through the window.

"Valerie?! What was that?!" Damon yelled. The girl startled and dove to hide everything.

Danny didn't really know what he was doing at the park. He was aware of the people staring at him. He didn't blame them, though, since he was in his Phantom form. There was murmuring and quick shuffling away from him, but there was a small group of people he recognized watching him from a short distance away. Bakugo sat on the back of a bench, his shoes muddying up the seat. Beside him was one of his followers and standing next to the bench flirty-like was Paulina. She looked perfect, but Danny didn't care much for that.

They watched as Danny looked through a dog obedience book Sam had thrown at him earlier.

"Yo, idiot, a dog's hearing is much more acute than a human's! Just tell him to do something!" Bakugo yelled. It startled Danny, but he quickly composed himself.

"Uh, sit!"

Cujo sat down, his tail wagging and tongue hanging out.

"Uh, fetch!" Danny picked up a stick and threw it. Cujo chased after it and returned barely a few seconds later. "Looks like you're faster than most dogs too, regardless of your form." Cujo waited patiently for Danny to give more information. The vigilante looked towards the teens watching him and waved. "You guys wanna pet him?" Bakugo was the first to stand up and walk over, soon joined by the others. He was gentle when he knelt down and scratched behind Cujo's ears. The dog rolled over, trying to get the boy to scratch his belly.

"Phantom, hey!" Somebody called. Everybody turned to see Izuku running up. He came to a stop right in front of the vigilante and gasped for breath. "Phantom, the Fentons are after you!"

"Huh?" The vigilante hovered slightly and looked around. There was no sign of the RV or anything suspicious.

"They heard you're at the park and rushed to get here. Jazz Fenton called me to tell me!" Phantom hurried to pick up Cujo. "Thanks Izuku, I'll see ya around!" He turned invisible, then flew up into the air to take a look at the surrounding area. The Fenton could be seen coming from the north, and there was Kumai Woods from the East-

_"___Danny there's somebody coming quickly!" __Sam's voice echoed in his head. He spun around and dropped out of the sky a few feet as a rocket shot through were he'd been standing.

_"___Whoever it is they can see me… or, at least, they know my general location." __

There was a short silence as Danny phased through the ground and searched around for a tunnel or sewer.

_"___I don't know if it's a villain, but the person has a red suit and a hoverboard." __Sam's voice said. She sent a picture with some difficulty, and it barely lasted a minute in Danny's mind before disappearing entirely.

_"___You think it's an insta-villain?"__ _"___No, they seem to calm. Maybe it's just another vigilante or… um… just a normal villain? Or, possibly some mercenary?"__

Danny made his way through the sewers, changing form and walking through the darkness. If the villain or whoever found him, all they'd get is a teenager with an annoying dog.


	26. Chapter 26: the lab

Nezu listened carefully to everything Phantom had to say. While the boy had refused to actually enter the building, he had come to UA like he was asked. He hovered outside the window three stories off the ground holding Cujo in a tight grip.

The principal sat in the window sill sipping tea. Another cup and the kettle sat beside him, but the boy refused to come any closer even when the drink was offered to him.

"You say you found him?"

"Yeah, I thought he was a stray but I'm starting to think maybe he came from that lab. He-"

"Lab?" Nezu stiffened slightly and Phantom faltered.

"Axion Labs, I believe. I saw some cages while I was there but they were all empty. He keeps trying to go back, but I don't know why."

Nezu stared into the dog's eyes like he was trying to communicate with him telepathically. "Tell me his powers again?"

Danny shifted the dog in his hold. "Um, he can change form. Like, one second he's… this, and the next he's giant and stronger. He's really good with directions and I'm pretty sure he's been trained. He can follow the simple orders in a dog obedience book I got from the library."

Nezu nodded. "Perhaps… we should investigate the lab."

_"He means that he doesn't trust Axion Labs. _" Izuku said through their group chat. It was just the three of them, but Sam had suggested they let Nezu in. he already knew it was them, but had no proof. _"He'savictimofexpiramentationhemightbeabletohelpCujobutthatwouldtakelotsoftimeright? MaybeweshoulddowhatSamsaidand-" _

_"__Izuku, cool it. We can't understand you when you talk that fast. We should invite him to the group chat, I could try to show him what we found when we broke into the lab-" _

Oh yeah, Danny forgot about that.

_"__Ohmygoshohmygosh-" _

_"__What is it?" _Danny instinctively turned towards a building across the street from the school. He couldn't see them well, but their silhouettes were visible on the roof.

_"__IT'S MIDNIGHT! OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH-" _

_"__Heroes? Why are there heroes? Is it a trap?" _Danny hovered slightly farther from the window, eyeing Nezu suspiciously.

"I assure you there is nothing wrong. I said there are no heroes here, since it's Saturday."

_"Danny, I think it's fine, I only sense a few people. Anyways, I'm gonna connect Nezu." _

Danny watched as Nezu's fake blanked in surprise. He smiled again as soon as he realized what was happening and resumed drinking his tea. Everybody's voice became distorted thanks to one of Sam's newest tricks, but Izuku's excitement was still the same. Nezu nearly choked on his tea when Izuku began mentally rambling about his quirk.

_"__Ohmygoshyou're SO COOL. Can I have your autograph? You're quirk is High-Specks which is an intelligence quirk, so I'm guessing you work with the police a lot huh? You're also a principle, which is difficult to I'm guessing. Do you work with people to help them with their quirks because I have a few pointers for some of your staff to improve but they-" _  
_  
"Izuku, cool it." _Sam groaned. There was a yelp and Danny assumed Sam smacked the boy over the head. "Anyways, we broke into the lab to check and make sure they weren't doing anything illegal. Turns out their quirk research was mostly on living organisms, especially animals. We figured you'd be the most willing to help us stop them."

_"__Yes, most definitely." _Nezu noticed the way his inner voice was distorted slightly and grinned wider. 

_"__Great! I have pictures I can show you but I can't keep them up long." _

_"__No, it's fine, I believe you. I'll be able to see everything once we stop Axion Labs." _

Danny sighed in relief. At least somebody was on their side.

It wasn't so much an investigation as it was a raid. Phantom hovered above everybody with Cujo invisibly as they entered the lab and began searching every nook and cranny. They had a warrant, of course, but they still went a bit overboard.

Nezu was the one to have put it all together, and he had his staff assist. For the mean time there was a truce between the vigilantes and the heroes, but Izuku and Sam still decided to work from a distance.

"Phantom, perhaps you should release Cujo?" Nezu said, sitting on top of Eraser's shoulder. Nobody was resisting, so there wasn't much reason to get ready for a fight. In fact, I'm pretty sure Danny was the only one tense.

"Fine…" He whispered before dropping down and setting the wriggling dog on the ground. He turned visible and knelt down to whisper into the dog's ear. Both he and Nezu noticed one of the researchers stiffen.

"Cujo, fetch."

The dog leapt into the air and grew in size before running off with Danny flying behind him. The heroes chased after. Cujo led them to the other side of the lab before coming to a halt at a brick wall.

"It's newer than the other areas," Danny muttered. He fluttered away slightly before aiming and shooting the wall with an energy brick melted and made enough room for Cujo and the others entered the room that had been hidden.

"There's no way I'm going in there," the boy whispered. Cujo had found what he wanted, a small squeaky toy, and the heroes had proof of illegal experimentation.

"Phantom, wait. I-"

"Save it. You're probably gonna try and trick me or something. By the way, my allies have decided they want to be more open about their existence. I thought I'd tell you their names and quirks. "Jackrabbit, analysis quirk. Black Cat, telekinesis. That being said, try not to piss them off, they could easily destroy you if they wanted."

Danny held an excited Cujo and hovered slightly, backing away from the heroes like he expected them to betray him… and he did.

"Phantom, we won't arrest you, we want to help you. What you are doing is dangerous-"

"I'll die when I say I die. I'm gonna let the likes of _you _stop me."

And with that, like the drama queen he is, Danny turned intangible and slipped out of the building.

_*"Drama queen," _Sam giggled. Izuku began gushing over all the heroes. Midnight, Present Mic, a few others Danny hadn't heard of until now.

_"__We should go to the park and celebrate with a picnic!" _Izuku said excitedly. There was a chorus of "Yes!" as the kids hurried away from the lab.


	27. Chapter 27: Spirling

Jazz watched as the kids headed down to the lab. They always took the time to lock the door behind them, but she still wondered what they were doing in there. Danny was looking more tired than usual, and everytime anybody besides his friends tried to talk to him he would go silent or snap.

She worried about him, and had the feeling she missed something. It was supposed to be spirit week at their middle, and Danny looked ready to murder somebody. Jazz had tried to tell her parents about the sudden change in their son, but backed out when they suggested the sudden quirk appearance had changed his personality somehow.

It's best not to get too far into that.

So now, with Danny hiding away from the world in the lab, Jazz decided to do the worst thing she could think of: searching his room.

Jazz searched every nook and cranny. Under the bed, in his drawers, nightstand, and, finally, the closet. She found a large first aid kit hidden in a corner. First aid kits aren't usually as worrying as the nearly empty and bloody one she found in the back of her brother's closet.

"Come on Jazz think. Think! Danny is skittish, exhausted, and doesn't talk to family any more. For the past couple weeks he is always wearing long sleeves or sweatshirts… always late coming home at night and sometimes doesn't come back at all…"

Jazz snapped his fingers as a theory came to mind. "Depression!" Her face fell. "Oh no it's depression."

She hurried to put things back the way she found it and hurried back to her own bedroom. She'd call the school, ask if her brother could talk to the guidance counselor. Yeah, yeah! That'll work. Jazz couldn't help him on her own, especially when he wouldn't talk to her.

Danny, sitting in the lab, didn't know anything about his sister's plan. He was chatting with Sam and Izuku to try and figure out a better schedule. Izuku had taken note that for the past couple weeks since they found Cujo, Danny was getting ready to crash. Night patrols and school were getting to be too difficult for him, so they would start splitting things up.

They had already informed Eraserhead and, by extension, the police that Jackrabbit and Black Cat existed, so it was only a matter of time before they debut.

"So, shall we train?" Izuku asked, jumping up from his seat and looking around the lab for any new projects the Fentons had given up on. His eyes landed on a gun shaped in a circle that didn't quite connect.

"What's this?" Izuku said, catching Danny's attention. Danny took one look at the weapon he was holding and jumped up.

"Don't touch that!"

Izuku immediately dropped it onto the ground. He was used to faulty Fenton projects exploding or Danny being scared of something they made. "Why what's wrong will it explode should I move it I'm sorry why are you breathing so quickly are you having another panic attack-"

Sam and Izuku hurried to support Danny as his legs shook underneath him. "I-it's called the Fenton peeler… it's supposed to pull quirks apart and de-destroy them…"

There was a long silence before Sam suddenly made her way towards the cabinet they hid the paintball guns in.

"Shall we begin?" She asked, throwing the rifle Izuku designed to him. The rifle, though not the prettiest, was impossible to trace back to the kids because he made it from parts he found at Dagobah beach. He made Sam some handguns, but they were all designed specifically for the paintballs. It was scary how good he was at building weapons… and with chemistry. He'd found the information on the paintballs and was able to replicate them easily.

Danny, despite his exhaustion and skittishness at the moment, did well with dodging the paintballs.

They didn't stop until Danny suddenly transformed in midair and dropped to the floor. He landed hard, and just groaned when his friends shook him gently.

"I'm guessing this is what they call a crash?" Sam whispered to Izuku, who nodded. "I'm guessing we'll be in charge of patrol tonight."

Izuku nodded again.

Sam and Izuku armed themselves with their guns and the refurbished Fenton weapons for the next three days after Danny passed out from exhaustion. No matter what he said or did, both friends refused to let Phantom patrol at night. Sam had her lipstick taser and Izuku had the Nine Tails, which they had, one again, begun calling the Jack of Nine Tails. They both sported the DP symbol.

Though they didn't take down anybody other than thugs and a convenience store robber, they still ended up drawing the attention of a certain hero who patrolled the same area on the third day. Er... Night...

"So he wasn't kidding, you two really are working too." Eraserhead studied the kids for a moment, mostly the weapons they carried. Sam carried her guns on a belt over her left shoulder to her right hip. Another, almost identical belt held her pants up and sported the lipstick.

Izuku had his rifle strapped to his back and had his Jack of Nine Tails hanging on the belt around his waist. Izuku was good with hand-to-hand combat, but wasn't nearly as well trained as Sam.

"Why would you think he was joking about that? And we've helped before… surely you remember bunny boy here shooting you a while back."

"That was you? You shot me from across the street."

Izuku waved towards the rifle on his back. "Not like it was difficult, you weren't even moving around."

A thought crossed the boy's mind. _"He's gonna recognize our voice, you know?" _

_"__They already know who we are, but they have no proof. Recognizing our voice isn't enough to arrest us. Or, at least, not for him." _

Izuku knew for a fact that arresting people on suspicion was enough in Japan, but Eraserhead wasn't the type to do so. Guilty until proven innocent.

"Where _is _Phantom?" The hero asked, leaning forward slightly and glancing around the roof they were all standing on. Both kids stiffened slightly.

"He's… not here." Sam whispered just loud enough for the hero to here.

"Is he hurt?"

"Not physically… his family's making him get counseling and, well, he's getting worse."

"Worse? You'd think a counselor would be making him feel better," Eraserhead muttered. He furrowed his brow, trying to think of some way to help, but everything he knew was useless on a kid that doesn't trust you. "Maybe try talking to him about everything. Let him know you're there to help and support him no matter what."

Sam looked surprised, though the hero couldn't tell with her mask. "So, wait, you actually just want to help him? That doesn't… why?"

The hero sighed and stuck his hands into his pockets. "He may be breaking the law but he _is _still just a kid. How bad is he?"

Izuku looked away. "He passed out from exhaustion monday. Fell right out of the sky. The next day he had his first counseling session and was a total mess. Not much I can tell you besides that. "Everything you say can and will be held against you," as they say in America."

The hero gave an expression of defeat but didn't argue.

As soon as the kids left to finish patrol or go home, Eraserhead took out his phone.

"Eraserhead, is there a problem?" A small voice said from the other end. Nezu didn't sleep much, but it was really late right now.

"Phantom's friends have taken over his patrol."

"Ah, and are they having fun working hands on together?"

Eraserhead sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "No, you didn't hear me right. I said _taken over _. Something's wrong with Phantom, I think he had some sort of emotional break."

"Oh dear." The voice was much more serious and awake, and there was some ruffling as Nezu hurried to get dressed on the other end. "How far are you from Fenton Works?"

"About fifteen minutes, why?"

"I'll meet you there. I think we should talk to Jack and Yurei."


	28. Chapter 28: Falling

There was somebody banging on his door. Loudly. Danny groaned and stood up, grabbing an emergency kit under his bed. Another drill. Another loud, annoying, late night drill.

"What is it this time?" The boy grumbled as he swung his door open and shouldered the heavy black backpack. He was surprised to see that, behind his father, was Eraserhead with Nezu perched on his shoulder.

"Good morning Daniel!" Nezu said chiperly. He and the hero noticed how the boy flinched at his own name.

"Just… call me Danny. And, anyways, what's going on? It's 1 in the morning and I have school in the morning." The boy swung his backpack off and onto his bed.

Jack clapped before saying a quick goodbye and returning to bed.

"What's happening?" Danny muttered, watching the heroes suspiciously. He stood inside his room, hidden slightly by his door.

"What was the backpack for?" Eraserhead asked carefully, eyeing the back behind the boy. He was gentler, it seemed, compared to what Danny was used to. The boy's expression softened slightly.

"My parents do drills a lot, at random times. We were taught to keep a backpack ready full of necessities in case of a real emergency." Danny slowly opened the door, turned on the lights, and let the heroes inside. They looked around as inconspicuous as possible.

"So, what do you consider important enough to earn a place in your emergency bag?" Nezu asked. Danny looked around for a moment before suddenly ripping the bag open and emptying it on the bed. A couple pair of jeans, three shirts, and a bunch of neatly rolled underwear and sock fell out into a pile. The front pouch held a tooth brush and tooth paste along with a single, unopened thing of deodorant. There were no toys, or books, or anything he deemed valuable besides a small wallet full of cash.

"It's an emergency bag, only necessities can be in it," Danny muttered absently before sitting at his desk.

It was a little past 1 in the morning, but the bags under his eyes shouldn't have been that profound. The paleness of his skin and the bruise on his cheek shouldn't be that bad. He watched the heroes with a dead expression, and the light in his blue eyes seemed to have disappeared.

Eraserhead sat on the bed, facing the boy. "Jackrabbit and Black Cat told us Phantom was having a hard time."

Danny remained silent and didn't move an inch. He seemed to have not processed the information.

"How are you doing?" It was weird to Danny hearing Nezu ask him that. It was even more strange since the boy knew he didn't look okay.

"It's fine, go back to trying to catch the animals or something. Seriously, it's to late- er- early for this."

The heroes left the boy sitting in chair. As the bedroom door shut behind them they heard faint crying, muffled by the door and a pillow.

Danny shivered uncontrollably. His counselor, a woman with red hair spiked back into twin horns, smiled down at him from where she sat on her desk. Penelope Spectra, her name was, and she told the boy about his future. Her assistant, Bertrand, stood in the corner of the room as usual.

So far, the counselor had mentioned on three different accounts that Danny's older sister thought he was a loser. She'd said twice that his poor grades would probably cause him to be held back or, at the very least, keep him from attending any hero schools. Danny didn't mind that part, and the counselor seemed to notice so she started up chatting about astronomy.

"It's a shame about all the space exploration being forgotten. Jazz told me how you wanted to be an astronaut, and I have to say that, even if you were born a hundred years ago, you just wouldn't have a shot with those measly grades."

Danny looked away and began studying the pictures on her walls. Every photo was about the same, Penelope was grinning wide and excitedly while the students frowned at the camera. Danny recognized the looks as his own. Dead, empty, depressing.

"... Danny. Danny? Are you listening to me? Ignoring your elders is rude, no wonder your teacher complains about you so much!"

Teacher? Which teacher?

"I mean, Mr. Lancer is usually rather cool headed, but he seems really annoyed with you!"

Danny's heart finally sunk, and the counselor's smile widened. Mr. Lancer was the english literature teacher, along with being Danny's favorite teacher.

_Annoyed with me? No, there must've been a mistake. It was probably the homeroom teacher, he was always taking the other student's sides over the ours. _

"Mr. Lancer, you know, the balding one who always curses in book titles?"

_Oh… so it wasn't a mistake. _

Danny resisted the urge to cry as he was finally released. The hallways were filled with students who had the same expression as him. Paulina was stressing over her makeup, and her body was thinner than usual. She looked like a skeleton, but her cheeks remained full. She was talking with Valerie, who had a strip of white fabric over her mouth.

"Hey," Danny said, standing beside Valerie. He gently pulled the fabric down to see the scars. She hadn't put any makeup on that morning. "You look fine."

A small smile made its way onto her face and her eyes brightened a little.

Danny smiled to himself as he trudged away.

_Even if I'm a failure as a human, I can still make others smile. Is that enough? Izuku would probably say so. _

Izuku did say so. "I mean, I've always wanted to be a hero that saves people with a smile. You don't have any enemies to fight here, but you can still help the other students."

"Yeah, I suppose."

The kids made their way outside, staring at all the people sitting or standing around. Nobody was eating, except for Bakugou. Though, I suppose, Bakugo was mostly just picking at his food. He looked exhausted, and his clothes looked more messy than usual. Izuku made his way over to the boy, followed closely by the other two.

"Hey, Kacchan, you wanna sit with us?" Izuku asked cheerfully. Bakugou looked up and stared at them with dead eyes before looking back to his food. When it was clear he wouldn't respond, they all returned to their table.

"We should call his mother," Sam suggested, already pulling out her phone. Izuku nodded as well. Danny, however, laid his head on the table and closed his eyes.

_Why stay awake if I'm not needed? _


	29. Chapter 29: She dissappeared

Tsukauchi was often busy these days. There was the whole thing with instant villains, now he had to deal with the new information Eraserhead was giving him. The Fenton boy was depressed? And not just a minor case but, like, not caring about what was happening around him.

The detective, while never really suffering depression in full, new a lot about it from his job and reading. He wanted to talk to the kid, maybe clear some stuff up.

So that's what he did.

Today was Thursday, tomorrow there was supposed to be a pep assembly at the boy's school. Eraserhead and Nezu were worried about the kid as well, so they wanted to go with the detective.

None of them were prepared to see a sobbing boy sitting on the ledge of the roof. Sam and Izuku stood on the ground waving frantically and screaming up him.

_ "Stop!" _ "Stop!" " _ Danny come down!" _"Danny can't we talk about this?!"

"What's he doing?!" Tsukauchi yelled as he jumped out of his car and ran to the kid's side.

"He- he- he invited us over, but t-texted us to cancel. We thought- we were almost here so we de-decided to just come anyways." Izuku didn't take his eyes off Danny, who was hiding his face in his arms. By now Eraserhead was beginning to scale the side of the building in a place the boy wouldn't notice. It wouldn't take long.

"Danny stop this!" Sam cried. She had tears on her face, and her voice was wavering like she would break any moment.

It ended when Eraser grabbed Danny's shoulder and pulled him backwards off the ledge.

The front door was unlocked, so the kids raced up towards the roof with the detective at their heels. Nezu clung to the detectives jacket, his smile gone for once.

"Daniel look at me," Eraserhead said. He flinched as the boy screamed and kicked him in the gut.

"Don't call me Daniel! It's Danny!" The boy screamed, before curling up on the ground and sobbing again.

"Alright, okay, Danny. What happened, why did you try that?"

"Everything's wrong, I don't know what… why… I don't understand what's happening."

"Depression can be hard to understand-"

"It's not depression! It's not… It's a quirk, I think somebody's using a quirk on me. Everything hurts all the time, but at the same time I-I feel numb."

The door of the roof flung open and Sam and Izuku ran over to his side.

"Why would you do that?! We love you, why didn't you tell us?!" Sam pulled the boy up and shook him before an adult could stop her. Danny's breath hitched and he began crying again. "Sorry, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have yelled at you Danny!"

While the kids comforted the boy, Eraserhead and the other two adults huddled off to the side.

"Where's his parents?"

Tsukauchi shook his head. "Not sure, they aren't home and when I try to call it goes to voicemail."

The both looked towards Nezu, waiting for his input. "Let's take them all to UA for a tour."

That sat in stunned silence for a moment before hesitantly agreeing. He must've had a reason for suggesting it, and they didn't want to argue.

"Hey, kids, how would you like to see UA?" Eraserhead asked just loudly for them all to hear. Izuku's normal excitement was gone, replaced by fear. Not just worry or suspicion, but full on fear. Sam wasn't much better off.

Danny, surprisingly, was the one who didn't argue or try to get out of it. He just stood up, nodded, and pulled his friends along beside him towards the exit.

The car wasn't very big, five seats, so Nezu sat on the center console and face the kids in the backseat.

"That doesn't seem very safe," Izuku said suddenly, pointing to the principal. Danny snorted, smiling slightly.

"Indeed it's not, but I'd rather not sit on somebody's lap!" Nezu's smile returned and he studied the kids before him.

"Don't you, like, sit on people's shoulders all the time?" Sam asked. The principal decided not to mention that she was holding Danny's hand.

"Yes, I suppose I do! However, it's mostly because I am a fifth of their size and would get tired walking around so much!"

"Your face says "hug me" but your eyes say "murder"," Danny mumbled. The other kids laughed, but didn't realize that he was telling the truth.

Nezu was seriously planning to kill whoever hurt this boy.

Izuku shuffled through his backpack and pulled out a notebook and pen. "Midnight! Oh my gosh, this is so amazing. Your quirk is a gas that can put people to sleep, so cool! Have you ever tried to put the gases into a canister or bottle before? You could throw it at people who are out of your range, or maybe-"

"Cool it, Izuku," Sam whispered. The boy shut up immediately, but continued to jump a little in excitement.

Midnight looked to Eraserhead and the detective for answers but got none. She looked to where Nezu was perched on Danny's shoulder and slowly sidestepped into a closet nearby.

"That was weird," Danny whispered. "Did I weird her out?"

"No, I did. Now, continue on!"

They went past the cafeteria, then around to classrooms, and, finally, out to the training grounds. One of the cities, to be clear. Izuku mumbled about how UA had the best hero course in Japan, and possibly the world. Eventually he began listing some of the best heroes they knew, all of which graduated from UA.

"Izuku, oh my gosh, you think to fast for us to understand." Sam sighed as Izuku continued filling both his friends brains and ears with information faster than they could understand.

As soon as they entered the city, Nezu told the to stop.

"And here we are, city A!" The principal reached over and grabbed Tsukauchi's coat before jumping off Danny's shoulder. "Go have fun!"

All three kids stiffened. "Huh?"

"You don't get very many chances to practice your quirks, so you can use this city! Perhaps Eraserhead here will join you?" The principal looked at the hero and smiled knowingly.

"Yes, of course."

Danny's eye twitched. _ "Of course I can't be left alone." _

_  
_"You did try to jump off a roof. I'm gonna let Eraserhead into the chat."

A few seconds later, with the detective and Nezu walking towards the commentator's booth, Eraserhead's gruff sigh rattled in their brains.

_ "So, what are we gonna do?" _ The hero asked. He stared at the kids for a second before Izuku suddenly started jumping with excitement.

_ "Oh, oh! We used to play tag all the time!" _

Danny smirked at Eraserhead's confusion. Tag was more of an American game, it was very uncommon in Japan. He took a couple steps towards the hero and poked him in the gut before darting off.

"_ P _ _ enciltop is IT." _

Izuku frantically ran away while also explaining the game to the hero. Everybody scattered, and, once the hero understood the game, they kicked him out of the chatroom.

_ "Where are you guys?" _ Danny asked. He knew everybody would be keeping an eye on him, so he decided to stay off the buildings. Izuku, despite all his training, was not very stealthy. He lept from rooftop to rooftop without much grace. A live video seemed to cut in and out, showing him jumping, landing harshly, and sprawling out on the rooftop.

"You should be more careful," the hero said gently before tapping the boy's shoulder and leaping away from him.

Eraserhead was immediately accepted back into the chat and Izuku was booted out.

"_ This is weird. I never thought I'd be able to do something like this with a hero." _ Danny dropped into a sewer while he thought that. He showed the others a fluttering photo of where he entered before hurrying to run off. Sam shared a photo of her hiding in a building, then another a few seconds later to show the hero had joined her.

_ "I didn't even know this game existed. I'll have to share it with my coworkers." _

There was a loud screech in the chat when Izuku jumped through a window, tagged Sam, and lept back out again. Sam immediately turned on Eraserhead, who didn't have much trouble dodging until she forced loud, obnoxious noises into the chat. The sudden noise forced Eraser to stiffen and turn on his quirk to stop her.

"Still think it's fun?" She stuck out her tongue as the chat was forcefully disbanded. He looked frustrated as she stepped on the end of his scarf. "You're it!"

She leapt out a window and onto the roof of the next door building. She was much more graceful than Izuku, and faster.

Eraser decided to go after Danny instead, mostly because the boy had been successfully hidden for too long. His phone vibrated, interrupting his train of thought.

_ 'What happened? Danny suddenly grabbed his head like somebody hit him over it with a bat.' _ Tsukauchi.

_ 'Sam's quirk. She was connecting everybody who wasn't 'IT'. When she was tagged she forced loud noises into our heads.' _

He hurried to the sewers, since that was the last place he saw the boy. The trio were probably all connected again, and it was possible they were working together. What Eraserhead wasn't expecting, however, was or Danny to have easily climbed up to the ceiling and hang there waiting. The hero had been trained for stealth, though, and spotted the boy within seconds.

"Damn, should've known you'd spot me. Stupid, stupid-" the boy muttered as he used the broken overhead lights to swing away.

"It's not stupid, you probably could've gotten away from anybody else."

In the dark, the only lights visible were the faint glowing of Danny's green eyes. Wait, green? Eraserhead shook the thought away as he struggled to keep up with the boy. He'd jumped to the ground, racing away. He sprinted and didn't slow even after a couple minutes. He shouldn't be this good, his PE were terrible!

"Come on Penciltop, quite holding back!"

"I'm not."

The boy faltered, stumbling slightly before fixing it and continuing his sprint. _ "Why isn't he catching me? He must be worried about me. Stupid, I should've seen it sooner-" _

He had grown so used to the chat that he couldn't tell when he was in or out of it. Right now, Sam and Izuku could hear every self deprecating thought. Sam silently connected Eraserhead so he could hear.

The boy accidently brought up Spectra, and a short, broken voice popped up with some of the things she'd said.

_ You're sister thinks you're a loser. _

_ You can't be a hero _ or _ an astronaut with those grades. _

_ Why do you push blame onto Bakugou, surely it's your fault he hits you? _

_ Why don't you just give up? _

Danny was beginning to cry, but he doesn't stop running. It was the most free and happy he'd felt for days.

_ Just give up. _

Spectra's voice echoes in their heads. The feeling of uselessness takes hold and Eraser's speed slows slightly.

_ "What is this?" _ He asks the kids, but he can feel it doesn't matter. There was something wrong in the chat. Where was the excitement? The emotion? Where was Izuku's constant white noise rambling?

_ You're useless, what's the point? _

Spectra's calm voice would usually be to silent to hear, but the emptiness of the chat allowed it to fill their thoughts.

"Danny stop!" He yelled. The boy came to a sudden stop and tripped, face planting.

_ Don't bother trying. _

Eraserhead activated the quirk and stared at Danny. Usually lasting effects of quirks can't be canceled, but he was grateful to see that the sudden cloud of negativity lifted off everybody's shoulders. Danny stood, wiped tears out of his eyes, and stared at the hero with confusion.

*"What the fuck?

The hero didn't know how to respond other than *"watch your language."


	30. Chapter 30: Fear Eater

_**if you don't want to wait until next week for an update I actually have 60 chapters written and up on AO3. Phantoms Amoung Us by Riddlersroad.**_

There was an air of hatred hovering over the group of people standing in Spectra's office Friday morning. She was missing, but there were police and various heroes sitting in the halls waiting for her. She was inside, they knew that for a fact. What they didn't know was that she was a master at hide-and-seek and her partner in crime could turn into birds.

Eraserhead struggled to contain his fury as he made his way through the school, studying the state of the school. The children were all obviously exhausted, and they obsessed over little things. One girl was unhealthily skinny, one was scrubby her scaled arm furiously with a steel-wool sponge. The hero hurried to take the sponge away when he saw a scale rip off and begin to bleed.

All over the school, heroes and policemen worked to fix the children's problems as they searched for Spectra.

All Might, despite being the #1 hero, was ignored by the students unless he actively interacted with them. He stopped one girl who was brushing her glowing golden hair furiously. He scalp had drying and flesh blood in it.

"Only redeeming quality, only redeeming quality, only re-"

"That's enough of that!" The hero snatched the brush up and nudged her towards a policeman. They'd started sending any children with injuries out to an ambulance outside. There were already many kids dismissed from the building.

The teachers didn't seem to notice and, those who had, suffered from the heavy cloud of depression as well. Eraserhead used his quirk on some he passed by, but there wasn't much more he could do.

"Have you figured out who she is?" Danny asked at Tsukauchi's side.

"Spectra isn't exactly subtle, it's actually her villain name. She works with a man they call Beast, but their real names aren't really known. I have no idea how they managed to get a job at a school, but I have a feeling one of the _real _staff will be losing their job."

"The principal is an asshole."

The detective looked surprised, but quickly returned to his job searching all the files in the villain's office. The students each had a page she'd handwritten about their worst fears or worries.

"She feeds on negative emotions," Danny whispered. The detective looked up at him, then to the AC dial. The boy looked sad, and a sigh escaped him before he finally left the room.

_"__She kept the room so cold so I couldn't tell the difference between my Villain Sense and just being cold." _

_"__Oh, buddy, that's rough. You going Ghost?" _

_"__Yeah." _

Danny slipped into a closet and switched form. He felt more tired than ever. The poor boy silently wished this whole ordeal would end soon. The bell chimed as the boy searched the building, marking the beginning of the first period or, for today, the beginning of the pep assembly. Despite everything, the heroes still allowed the assembly to go on. It might help (probably not). It should be safe with all the heroes (probably not). The kids needed a pick-me-up (they all just wanted to go to bed).

The pep was set up with a small stage in the center of the gym floor. Danny floated around above people's heads invisibly, though he would flicker occasionally.

"Where's Danny?" Eraserhead asked Sam and Izuku as they stood at the entrance of the gym. They startled before turning towards him.

"Danny's- er- in the bathroom. That way." Sam said and pointed before laughing nervously. The heroes eyes darted towards Phantom as he flickered slightly.

_"__Danny, bathroom." _

_"__Got it." _

Danny flew towards the bathroom, then transformed in the hallway. He made it look like he was just entering the bathroom as the hero rounded a corner to check.

"What?" Danny asked innocently before going in to find a stall. The hero sighed before hurrying back to his post.

_"__Izuku, what do you think her quirk is?" _

_"__I was thinking it might be that she can heighten the negative emotions in people. Or maybe she, like, draws all the negative emotions out then feeds it until it turns into depression or obsessions." _

_"__If that second one is right, she could be planning something at the pep assembly to feed the misery." _

Danny fluttered back to the assembly and stared at the "spirit sparklers" pointed at his older sister. She was smiling, possibly the last happy person in the school.

She screamed and flung her note cards as they suddenly flipped towards her and began sparkling.

"Jazz!" Danny cried before darting towards her. As he wrapped his arms around her, they turned invisible, allowing the electricity to pass through them. Regardless, the boy stiffened when they landed on the ground not far.

_"__Danny?! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmy-" _

_"__Izuku cool it! There's more important things to worry about!" _

Danny couldn't hear the voices of his friends in his head. He couldn't comprehend all the screams and the hollars of the heroes and teachers getting the students out of the gym. He stared at the sparklers still going off.

_Come on Danny it'll be fun! _

It wasn't fun.

_Danny! Smile for a photo! _

Danny cried and grabbed his chest.

_Danny wake up! _

"It hurts," he choked. Eraserhead took a look at the boy, then to the sparklers that hadn't been turned off yet.

"Get this down!" he yelled to nobody in particular before stepping between the boy and the machines. "Phantom, look at me. Look at me, not at them."

The boy's eyes seemed glazed, stuck where they were. He was looking through Eraserhead, and the hero wondered momentarily if the boy had some sort of x-ray vision too.

"Haha! What fun!" Somebody yelled from above. Spectra sat on the back of a giant mosquito, grinning down at them. "Thanks for the misery, kid! Didn't know fear could taste so good!"

Eraserhead looked towards the boy still shaking and zoning out then back to the villains hovering in the air.

"Jazz, get Phantom out of here."

_"__Danny wake up! You need to wake up!" _

Phantom startled and vanished from view. Seconds later he hovered in the air, glaring at the villains, looking around at everything but the sparklers. Before the mosquito, who Izuku told him was probably Bertrand, could attack any of the fleeing students he was kicked in the gut and sent tumbling onto the bleachers.

Spectra, however, seemed to have gotten stronger and faster thanks to her feast. She laughed like a maniac as she tore up seats and started throwing them at the boy. He dodged somewhat easily and was able to kick her in the gut and pin her to the ground. She just grinned again and pulled out a taser.

The boy screamed as he was electrocuted.

"You shouldn't… upgrade tasers! You could kill somebody you-you ass!"

Spectra laughed, but now she was surrounded by heroes. "Beast! Little help here!"

They both escaped by flying through the window over the gymnasium. Phantom remained on the ground, jerking occasionally.

"Are you injured?" Eraserhead whispered, kneeling down beside the boy. There was a moment of silence before the vigilante grinned.

"Wo-wouldn't you like to know?" With that he fell through the floor.


	31. Chapter 31:distrust

"Damn."

Danny stared down at the chess board. He didn't usually play games like these, nor was he entirely sure he was playing it properly. Luckily Nezu was very patient. Or perhaps he didn't even care about the game.

The boy threw up his hands. "Can I give up?"

"That's not very in character, is it?"

"It is with chess. Look at this, what even is it?"

"Bishop."

"Bishop? Fine, well, he looks like a tool. Why don't you just tell me what you really want, okay? There's no point playing nice, what's going on."

Nezu didn't let the boy know how startled he was. True, the principal was very rarely surprised by things, but he found this boy interesting and difficult to read. One moment he's the most calm kid in the world, the next he's spouting insults and plotting your demise.

"I wanted to make sure you were all right after the whole ordeal with Spectra." Nezu answered truthfully, but Danny stood up and crossed his arms in disbelief.

"Bullshit. You must want something, there's no way you'd just- why would you- ugh!"

"Did others not come to make sure you were alright? What of your parents?"

Danny looked up at the ceiling. "That's none of your business. Just tell me what you want."

"I've told you already. I wanted to ensure you were alright."

"Right, then what. You wouldn't want to keep me safe unless you had plans for me."

Nezu made a "hmm" sound as he stared at the boy. "You think nobody cares about you unless they think you have worth."

The boy flinched slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, only to stop when a wisp of what looked like frost escaped. He stiffened.

*"Danny my boy!" Jack barged through the front door and stared at his son. "Come help with the groceries!"

Danny's face twisted into something of horror as he realized something, but he put up a smile a ducked outside. He was left to haul all the bags inside, opting to do one trip. Nezu watched the boy putting the goods away from where he sat at the kitchen table.

"Do you have a lot of chores?"

Danny shrugged. "Depends on what you consider 'a lot'."

"Can you give me a list of them?"

Danny sighed. "Keeping the lab clean, vacuuming, dishes, keeping my room clean. Random, things they tell me to do. It's just chores, every kid's got them."

Nezu had to remind himself that American families tend to make their kids do more work than over here. The American school system wasn't usually as demanding though, either. Danny's grades had dropped since last year, put he seemed to be trying hard.

"You wanted my sister in your school, didn't you?" the boy asked suddenly.

"Yes, I thought her quirk would be useful for hero work."

"She was gushing about it for weeks. She kept saying 'the principal of UA thought I'd make a good hero!' I figured she was telling the truth, but I also knew she'd say no because she's more into psychology."

"You know your sister well. However, it seems Jazz has changed her mind."

Danny's head popped up. "What?"

"I assumed you knew, but your sister sent me a letter right after Spectra attacked the school and asked if I was still willing to tutor her."

Danny paled again. "You're not gonna turn her into you, right?"

Nezu laughed, but offered no words of comfort.

_"__Shit." _


	32. Chapter 32: for lack of a better name

"So, wait, let me get this straight. Your sister, who for the past several years has been obsessing over her well thought out plan to become a child psychologist, just suddenly choose to be a hero?" Sam asked, though her attention wandered around the spotless bedroom.

Danny nodded.

Izuku was to busy messing with the weight equipment. He had gained a lot of muscles, but he still worked on getting better.

"It's part of Nezu's plan isn't it? He must be planning to use Jazz as an unsuspecting spy. We'll need to work hardertohideoursecretidentitiesnow-"

"Either speak loud enough for us to hear you too, or write everything for us to read later," Sam sighed. She tossed a notebook and pen from Danny's desk to Izuku. The boy quickly set aside the weights and hurried to write stuff down.

"We should all go out tonight. What do you think?" Danny asked as he sprayed one of his windows with cleaner and began wiping it.

"I think it's a great way to practice with our new weapons." By new weapons she meant some original designs of Izuku's. Both had new black shoes that went up to their knees. The soles and toes were steel and had a slight spring to them. Their new gloves were thicker and padded so they wouldn't hurt their hands as much when they punched bag guys. Danny didn't get anything, but he was fine with that.

"Ugh!" Izuku said before throwing his hands up and stomping over to Danny's desk. He quickly grabbed a roll of tape and taped papers to the wall before continuing his writing. There was an awkward silence as Danny and Sam watched Izuku write at an impossible speed.

"I heard there's this new singer named Ember going around…" Sam said, breaking the silence. Danny looked up and groaned.

"No offence, but I can't stand her music. It's… what is it? It's gross… it's weird… I can't stand it!"

Sam smiled. "I haven't heard it yet, but I'll take your word for it."

Danny shuffled, creasing his eyebrows while he tried to remember something. _"___I've forgotten something…" __

_"___Homework?" __Izuku asked.

_"___No?" __

_"___Chores?" __Sam looked around the room while she thought it, but shook her head when she realized it had an obvious answer.  
__  
__"...no."

Izuku stopped writing for a moment and threw a few dozen ideas through the chat in a matter of seconds.

"Izuku, cool it!" Sam scolded as she held her head and disbanded the chat for the time being.

"S-sorry! I- um- did your parents build something new?"

Danny's jaw dropped. "Oh my god, your right, that's what I forgot! My mom built these new headphones things that are supposed to cancel out any voice activated quirks like brainwashing or hypnosis.

"Really?! That's amazing! Do they act like some sort of filter or do they just cancel out the quirk altogether? Can I try them? How well do they work? Have they been tested at all before-"

"They're like a filter. Yes. They've only been tested once and they were considered a failure."

"Can I see them?" Izuku seemed to have either quit his work on the wall or forgotten it as he jumped excitedly.

Danny dragged a duffle bag out from under his bed. It was filled with various weapons or projects his parents had given up on that he knew Izuku would be interested in. On top were two pairs of what looked like wireless headphones. The green haired boy was quick to pull them out and begin fidgeting with them. The blueprints soon sat in front of the boy on the desk.

"If they don't work they could always double as techno-goth earrings." Sam smiled.

It didn't take long for Izuku to find the problem and fix them. Of course, Jack had forgotten to connect some wires on not one, but two pairs of headphones.

"Leave to him, huh?"

Sam put on her pair excitedly. "Wow these are sooo cool!"

Danny smiled, "I'm glad you like them."

"Right, well, I think we should get ready if we're going out tonight." Izuku, as always, was the one with a plan. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a reasonable one.


	33. Chapter 33:sludge villain

Right now, they were looking for a villain that had been causing chaos for a couple days. He was some sort of sludge creature, it seemed. It was right after school, and they weren't doing very well. No matter where they looked, they couldn't find him, and he only popped up to rob a convenience store or something.

Not to mention, the ghost hunter girl was chasing them now too. Sam found out that the hoverboard using, red spandex suited vigilante that seemed to hate them was actually Valerie. Izuku split off from the other two, going the opposite direction in hopes of finding the villain.

"Come on, stop that!" Danny yelled as Valerie shot at him. Her helmet, which was now modified to show her mouth, still covered most of her face, but he knew her quirk and was actually a little worried. If she decided to use it, she could cause serious damage.

"You destroyed my life! How am I supposed to stop hating you for that?!" "Whahuh? What do you mean?" "You and your stupid mutt are the reason my dad is a security guard at the mall!" She shot at Danny again, this time with more fury behind each shot. One of them grazed Danny's shoulder. The lazer burned, causing him to yelp.

"Fine! You know what? Why don't you talk to your dad and ask him __exactly__ what the lab was researching. Okay? Until then, *Fuck you!" Danny knew she could understand English to an extent.

He also knew that, judging from the annoyance on her face when he flipped her the bird, she knew what the middle finger meant too.

Izuku bounced from building to building like a rabbit, chasing after the escaped villain. It was broad daylight… people would see, but he didn't care in the slightest.

The sludge villain escaped, and the boy sighed before heading to a tunnel to put his school uniform back on over his costume. Good thing it was skin tight.

He continued on his way slowly, lost in thought about everything that happened today. Bakugou had burned his shoulder and bruised his stomach. The cruel words were what really stuck in the boy's mind though.

_"___You can't be a hero. But, hey, if you're really desperate, why don't you take a swan dive off the rough and pray you get one in the next life." __

"I wish you would be nicer, Kacchan," Izuku mumbled.

He should've been prepared. He would've been, had he not been daydreaming.

"Hey there kid!"

The sludge villain surrounded him, then began filling his mouth and nose with its sludge. The villain was talking, saying something about possession and how Izuku was a "real hero." But the boy was too busy panicking about the fact that he was suffocation. Was the villain sure he could possess people? Or was he just so scared of being arrested he was trying new things with his quirk.

Izuku stared at his notebook, watching the faint wind flip the pages as he tried to call out for help.

_"___Sam! Sam!" __

But it wouldn't help since she and Danny had gone different directions in search of this very villain.

_"___Is this how I die?" __

He felt his vision blur just as a silhouet appeared at the entrance of the tunnel. It was large, with hair that stood up like a rabbit's.

_"___What is that…?" __Izuku wondered just as he lost consciousness.

"Hello? Hello?" A voice said as somebody repeatedly smacked Izuku's face lightly. The boy groaned and coughed. "Oh, thank goodness! Thought we lost you there." All Might stood above the boy, signature smile on his face. After a second the boy processed what was happening and shot up to his feet.

"Uh- ah- ohmygosh-"

"Well, looks like you're moving around alright! Sorry about back there, did mean to get you caught up in my- er- justice- ing. The city sewer system is much more difficult to navigate than I thought! HAHAHA!" Izuku knew what he meant. The Phantom Patrol had gotten lost in the sewers multiple times. Right now, though, he was to amazed to say anything about that. He just stuttered, desperately trying to get words to come out of his mouth properly. "Ah...ah...ah…"

"You were a big help, thank you!"

_"___Ohmygoshit'sAllMightwhatdoIsaywhatdoIdo- he's here… in the flesh… ohmygoshhe'sbiggerinperson." __

"Oh gosh I need to get an autograph, where's my pen?" He grabbed his notebook off the ground and stared at the large print that took up two pages. "You already did! THank you so much, this'll be a heirloom! A family treasure!"

"Whelp, I gotta take this guy to the police so they can take care of him. Stay outta trouble!" Izuku was stunned for a second, watching as his hero got ready to take flight.

_"___Wait… I need to ask you something-" __

The boy acted on impulse, grabbing hold of the hero's leg just as he was leaping into the air. He screamed as they went through the sky.

"Hey hey! What do you think you're doing? I love my fans but this is too much!" All Might wrestled with pushing the boy off.

"No way! If I let go I'll die!" All Might stiffened. "Oh, that's a good point. Fine, just… keep your eyes and mouth closed." "Thank you!" Izuku did as he asked.

_"___IZUKU?!" __Sam's voice suddenly cried in his mind as he soared over her head. Danny's confusion was evident in the chat as well.

_"___Hold on I'll come get you!" __

_"___No don't! I need to ask him something-" __

And just like that, he was out of range.


	34. Chapter 34: Breath in breath out

__Breath in breath out. __

It's not like Danny didn't take him into the air sometimes during patrol.

__Breath in breath out. __

Then again, Danny's power of flight is calmer and he's usually lifting Izuku up on his back or holding him to his chest.

__Breath in breath out. __

"Not a very smart move. Bang on the door for a while, somebody will let you in." All Might moved to leap away.

"Wait! I have to ask you something, please! I have to know, is it possible to be a hero without a quirk? Could I ever hope to be somebody like you, even without powers?"

All Might turned towards the boy. The steam rolling off him startled Izuku, but the boy was even more surprised when the hero poofed out of view.

"Wha-what-"

As the slight wind blew away the steam, the boy cried in alarm at the sight he saw.

A skeleton- skinny man stood in the place All Might had been only a second before. His frown and blue eyes were the opposite of what the hero once had.

"A-All Might? What- why are you- what happened to you?!"

"You know those guys at the swimming pool who are always sucking in their gut and flexing and trying to hold their buff? I'm like that."

"I-I-I… This is your quirk then? A super powerful alternate version of yourself? I-I suppose that's possible…" After all, he had a best friend who was a lot like that.

"Right, well, we can go with that. I'm counting on you to keep your mouth shut. Don't go talking about this online or to your friends."

Izuku felt bad knowing that telling his friends about this was the first thing he'd do the next time he saw them. He nodded anyways.

"How did this ha-happen?" Izuku gestured to the man, staring at his arms and legs. To skinny to be healthy… The man slid down to sit on the floor and slowly lifted his shirt to show a scar over the left side of his body.

"Pretty gross, right? Got this in a big fight five years back. My respiratory system was basically destroyed. I lost my whole stomach. All the surgeries have pretty much worn me out and it can't be fixed. Right now, I can only do hero for about 3 hours a day. The rest of the time… this is what I look like."

"Five years ago? So does that mean it was the fight with Toxic Chainsaw?" Even as he said it, Izuku knew somebody as weak as that shouldn't be able to cause this much damage to a hero like All Might. The scar was more like something that would be made through impact ike a fist, and the chainsaw guy used, well, chainsaws.

"Wow, you know your stuff. It was a punch, and this wasn't made by that punk." Izuku stiffened, realizing he said his analysis Out loud. "Most of the world has never heard of this fight. I did everything I could to keep it under wraps. I'm supposed to be the guy who always smiles, a symbol of peace. But you know what? There's plenty of fear behind that smile."

"Your smile is an inspiration, though. Being fearless isn't the absence of fear, it's acting despite it."

The hero stared at the boy with surprise. "You seem like a good kid, but I'm sorry. Pro heroes have to risk their lives everyday, and some villains just can't be beaten without powers. So no, I honestly don't think you can be a hero without a quirk."

"I-I see." Izuku deflated slightly, staring at the ground as the hero stood and made his way to the door.

The hero said something… something about becoming a police officer instead, but Izuku just stared at the edge of the roof. Kacchan would laugh, after all, he'd been right all along.

_"___You can't be a hero. But, hey, if you're really desperate, why don't you take a swan dive off the rough and pray you get one in the next life." __

All Might and Bakugou would probably get along.

Izuku was still staring at the edge of the roof when a sudden explosion caught his attention. He hurried to pull off his uniform and put on his mask and hat before leaping roof from roof towards the chaos.

_"___The sludge villain? But didn't All Might-" __

The villain had a kid hostage and was suffocating him just like he had with Izuku. The boy lept off the building, landing only a few feet ahead of where the heroes were standing. He threw his backpack at the villain, aiming for the eyes, then began digging at the sludge body. In a last attempt to free the hostage, who he now recognized as Kacchan, Izuku grabbed the boy's collar and pulled.

They landed in a heap on the ground, but Izuku was quick to twist and throw the other boy towards the hero before running off.

The heroes were quick to catch the villain with the hostage freed, and Izuku found himself worrying about the backpack he'd accidentally left behind.

"Midoriya," a voice said. The boy spun around to see All Might standing not to far behind him. The yellow backpack in the hero's hands told to much. Izuku was still in his Rabbit costume…

The boy stiffened. "You shouldn't go through people's stuff," he wheezed.

All Might took a step forward, Izuku took a step back, crouching down into a defensive position. "You're gonna arrest me, right? I'm faster than I look-"

"No no, my boy, I'm not going to do that. I wanted to apologize, you saved that boy while the heroes… while __I __just stood by and watched."

"I couldn't just let him die."

"And that, that right there is what it means to be a hero. You act with only the thought of helping others. The heart of a true hero, something I've been looking for."

Izuku's face blanked. "Uh- huh?"

"My quirk, have you guessed what it is? You're good at analysis, aren't you?"

"Uhh… I'm guessing your quirk is weird then. What is it?"

"My quirk is called One for All. The ability to pass quirks on to another."

Izuku stiffened. "Like, pass it on with a machine or…"

All Might's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What? No. It's the quirk itself that let's you pass it on. You, young Midoriya, are my choice for a successor. So, what do you say?"

"Yes! Oh my gosh yes! You can't tell anybody that I'm Rabbit though, my mother would be furious. Oh, and I won't stop my vigilante work, either."

"You'll have to stop when you go to hero school."

"Deal!"

Izuku felt tears forming, but wiped them away. He hugged the hero, careful to not touch the injury.


	35. Chapter 35:past time

**Chapter Text**

As Izuku expected, the first thing he did when he saw his friends was tell every excruciating detail from the meeting with All Might the night before. Danny and Sam were more worried about the almost dying part to care about the hero's secret. They all sorted out a meeting place as All Might asked. Dagobah beach. It was covered in trash, but the kids knew it well.

"So, we just have to wait here for him?" Danny asked, staring out at the trash from his seat on the safety rail.

"Yeah, he said he'd train me, I thought maybe he'd help you two as well."

Izuku stared down at the exercise outfit he was wearing, then to the other two who wear wearing their regular outfits. Sam with a black skirt and purple half shirt. She still wore the Fenton headphones like earrings. Danny wore a white and red tshirt and jeans.

"Oh, hey, he's coming," Sam said. She turned towards a man walking up in an oversized white shirt and jeans.

He took a look at the kids before turning to walk away.

"Hey, wait!" Izuku called, running after him.

"What is this about, I thought I told you not to tell your friends!"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"No buts! Who are they, are you sure they can even be trusted?!"

It was Izuku's turn to be angry. "How dare you! You know who I am, think about who the other two people I work with in the field are. Think hero, think!"

Realization dawned on the man's face. "So, those are… Phantom and Cat? They're… just kids. You're all just kids!"

"Yes! I was hoping you could help them out, maybe train them as well."

All Might nodded slowly before fishing something out of his pants pocket. "This is the schedule for you. I did some research on this beach, this section in particular used to be beautiful. You will be cleaning it."

Izuku turned towards the mess, then paled. "All of it?!"

Sam and Danny laughed from where they were sitting on the railing. "Come over here boys, no need to be shy!"

Izuku and the hero made their way over.

"Hey, what should we call you, anyways? Probably not a good idea to call you All Might in this form, huh?" Danny said as he stared at the hero's unruly hair.

"My name is Toshinori Yagi. And you two are?"

"Danny Fenton."

"Sam Manson."

"Those… aren't Japanese names." Toshinori said, surprised. Both kids shrugged.

"We're both technically from America," Danny said, before hopping down and turning towards the beach. "So, Izuku here's gonna move trash for exercise? Man, wish we'd thought of that."

"Um, well, if I'm training all of you, then I'm gonna have to think of something else."

"No no! It's fine, really. I can just work on distance with my quirk, and Danny can maybe go swimming, see if there's a limit to how much pressure he can take." Sam hopped down as she spoke. Toshinori frowned.

"That seems dangerous."

All three kids held back laughter and turned away from the man.

"What did I miss?"

All three kids burst out laughing at the joke only they understood before Danny suddenly took a flying leap over the railing. Sam soon joined him, then Izuku.

Thus began the start of Izuku's- and, by extent, Sam and Danny's- training with the number one hero. It was difficult, and they would often go home soar, but the kids had fun. Izuku, especially, needed help. Despite all the patrolling and vigilante work, he still remained the least fit.

Sam did work on her distance most of the time, and Danny would often swim as far down as possible. He couldn't talk underwater, and it was uncomfortable not being able to see or smell, but he didn't really need to breath so he could go as far down as he wanted.

Every night, they went on patrol despite their weariness. Danny and Sam typically took the lead, and Izuku would stay in the shadows with his sniper rifle.

The day was difficult for a different reason.

_"___Okay, I know you're working hard for this, but you need to be careful not to burn yourself out. You don't have to be perfect, nobody is perfect," __Sam's voice rang through the chat as she tried to stop Izuku from mumbling in the middle of history class. Izuku nodded, knowing his friends could see.

Sam was working on ways to fix her eye problem. Eye problem as in, once again, she's been told her eyes glow when she uses her quirk. She was thinking she could just start wearing eye contacts that were the same color as her eyes. They would cover most of the glowing, but people wouldn't notice the difference.

Danny was busy trying to think through all the problems in Izuku's plan for them all attending UA without getting caught. It was complicated, and involved __soooo __much lying. Everybody knew that, with the right questions asked by Tsukauchi, they would be sent off to jail faster than they can say _"___oh shit!" __

Only a week passes by through their training before the trio has to pause training to deal with a threat to the city… or possibly even the world.


	36. Chapter 36:embers burn through shadows

Danny cringed at the boy's singing. He didn't know the name of this student, but the fact that his singing sounded like a mix of fingers on a chalkboard and a lawnmower running over a garden gnome made Danny apathetic towards him.

A little while later if the singing boy's MP3 player fell out of his pocket and shattered on the ground, you can't really blame somebody you can't see.

For now, though, Danny was busy taking in the sight of all the Ember merch that had somehow made its way into the school without breaking the dress code. Izuku had dyed his hair an electric blue, and was belting the chorus to the repetitive song. He wasn't as bad as the other boy, but still obnoxious to a point. Sam just looked around in disgust and fiddled with her headphone earrings.

"What the hell is going on?" A loud voice swept through the halls. The students went silent and turned to the teacher who had yelled. Mr. Lancer glared at everybody before pointing to a random door. "Everybody get to class!"

_"___I don't get it! This Ember McLain comes outta nowhere and suddenly she's the biggest thing since MP3s! It's so-"__

_"___Infuriating how mindless prepackaged corporate bubble gum is preventing true musical artists from being heard? Yes, yes I agree."__ Sam glared at Izuku, who was still singing- though a little quieter- as they walked through the halls. Izuku was in the chat, nobody wanted to hear the music taking over the white space in the back of their heads. He'd already entered homeroom.

"Nice earrings, sale at the dollar store?" Paulina sneers as she walks past, completely covered in Ember merch.

"For your information, they were a gift. Phantom gave them to me-" Sam stiffened as she realized she used the wrong name.

_"___Oh shit oh shit! I'm supposed to be the smart one!" __

_"___Street smarts, Izuku has the book smarts." __Danny snorted as they walked away while Paulina shouted insults at them.

Colorful insults.

As they walked into class, their homeroom teacher was writing quickly on the board nervously. Izuku had taken a break from his music to stand near the teacher and correct anything on the board.

"You said tomorrow was review day, then the test the next day. Thursday will be the beginning of the new chapter." Danny took a look at the dates. It was all in a couple weeks. The boy tried to remember what day it was.

_"___Uhhhhhh… July 18? No, 19? It's a Wednesday for sure." __Apparently Sam was having difficulties with the dates as well.

_"___How'd we get so disconnected from the real world?"__ She snorted out loud, grabbing the attention from the teacher and Izuku. _"___We don't live in the real world, we live in the shadow of it.__"

_"___That was terrifyingly deep." __

Class wasn't the most interesting thing. Most days were boring, and the kids had gotten used to Izuku playing with grip strengtheners, and the faint sound of an Ember song kept everybody but Danny and Sam happy.

They made it through half the day before the song was played outside as loud as possible.

"Eeeember! So warm and tender!" Everybody ran to the windows to see what was going on except for the trio and Bakugou. Izuku, no matter what, cared more about his education than a song. Bakugou just didn't seem to care at all about the whole thing.

"Ember! Ember's here!" Somebody squealed. There was a stampede of kids rushing out of the class before the teacher could stop them. Bakugou laughed when somebody stepped on Izuku's desk on his way out. The boy held up a ruined paper.

The kids left in the room moved to look out the window at the crowd starting to surround the portable stage. Bakugou yelled out at them all to get back to class, but nothing happened.

Ember's electric blue hair rose as the kids chanted her name. It reminded them of fire.

"I guess that explains her name," Danny muttered. The teacher left to yell at the students, and soon Izuku tried followed. After all, why stay if there's nobody to teach? Sam, however, had a better idea.

"Sit! Quickly Izuku, who is this girl and how could __she__ drag you out of the class?" Izuku blinked a couple times. Bakugou turned away from the window, watching the three kids trying to figure out the entire history of a new musician.

"Oh! Your right. Mass hypnosis, or brainwashing perhaps. Her hair grows as the students chant her name, so she must be gaining power from it. The more they chant, the more power she gets, the more people she can make chant."

"It's a circle-" everybody turned to Bakugou as he spoke. He stared at Izuku. "- and she's a villain."

Sam was already taking her phone out as they hurried down stairs to try and solve this. "Eraserhead there's a villain at the school again! Her name's Ember-"

"That new musician? I've been seeing her stuff all over UA-"

"Yeah that's her! We think she has a hypnosis quirk of some kind. She's dragged the entire school out to her stage!"

"I don't think that's enough proof to arrest her." Sam was about to say something else, but they arrived at the exit of the school. The students were chanting the singer's name. Ember.

"She looks younger up close," Danny muttered. Izuku began recording while Sam tried to sum up everything that was happening.

"Attention, freakishly dressed teen idol! I order you to cease and desist!" Mr. Lancer yelled from where he stood on top of a fire hydrant. Danny stiffened and slowly backed back into the school when his villain sense went off.

"Desist this, grandpa!" Ember switched a knob on her guitar and hit a note that sent a wave through the crowd. A sea of red eyes snapped back towards the teacher.

"Sadako!" Mr. Lancer cried as he stared at the brainwashed children.

"Revenge on the ones who took your childhood from you!"

Any teachers who were outside darted back inside as the children began using their quirks to attack. Danny phased through the ground, darting up and grabbing Lancer as he rose through the ground and into the air. He hurried back to the school, hurrying to barricade the doors with anybody left unaffected. "Eraserhead hurry!" Sam screamed while they ran through the halls to meet up with any other teachers.

"Any staff and children unaffected please come to the front office!" Somebody said over the intercom. It sounded like a kid, and some people hesitated.

"It's fine!" Izuku said, still running ahead. "Menneki is immune to mental quirks, it's probably her!"

"Great Gatsby!" Mr. Lancer cursed as the main entrance doors were flung open. Great Gatsby? Danny hadn't heard of it, he'd have to check it out.

They found themselves barricaded in the office, desks and chairs set against the doors and gates down and locked. They huddled, except for Izuku mumbling about all the different ways the heroes could stop this while he fiddled with the computers. Thanks to the heads up by Sam, Eraserhead and many others were already on their way. Danny, however, was stuck in Phantom form since he couldn't change around others.

"Where's Daniel?" Their homeroom teacher asked suddenly. "Wasn't he with you?"

Bakugou stared at Phantom. "He's out there."

__"Oh shit he knows."__ Danny mentally panicked. Izuku filled the chat with white noise as he went through the school's security measures. A few things were added after the last attack. He turned on the sprinklers to stop a boy with fire shooting from his finger tips from burning down the doors.

"Damn nerd, if the hypnosis was caused by noise, can't noise stop it?" Bakugou glared at the boy's green fluff of hair while he spoke.

Izuku nodded and turned on the fire alarm. They watched the cameras as the students screeched and held their ears before slumping against something or just falling to the floor.


	37. Chapter 37: Secrets should be kept

**Chapter Text**

Teachers and heroes alike praised Bakugou for his quick thinking involving the fire alarm, but Eraserhead and Tsukauchi was more focused on the trip and the young girl they had yet to meet. Menneki.

"So if your quirk makes you immune to other quirks does that mean Eraserhead's quirk doesn't work on you? Can you use your quirk to make others immune too? Does your immunity work with quirks besides mental ones? Do you-"

Izuku was cut off when Sam slapped a hand over his mouth. "You're going to fast for her to keep up."

"Uh-um. I don't know who Eraserhead is… I can use my quirk to make others immune to things for a short while. I-I'm not sure what all my quirk protects me from, I've never really needed to test it." Menneki looked like she was about to say more when Danny walked over to them with Eraserhead and Tsukauchi at his heel.

"Right, let's begin. Sorry to say this, but I wish we didn't meet up like this so much." The detective looked around at the kids before his eyes landed on Menneki. "And your name is?"

"Menneki… Menneki Kohi."

Tsukauchi just nodded. Nothing pinged it as a lie, so he believed it to be true. Suddenly Izuku began jumping up and down.

"Oh, oh! Menneki's quirk makes her immune to other mental quirks! Menneki, lie!"

"Oh, um, I have long green hair." Menneki pointed at her hair, which was cut short and a pitch black color. Tsukauchi frowned. It didn't ping as a lie despite being an obvious one.

"Now Eraserhead, use your quirk on her while she lies!" Izuku looked excited and had already pulled out a notebook to write stuff down in.

The hero sighed before doing as he said. The girl flinched when his hair raised, but she just repeated the same thing.

Nothing happened.

"What… that's odd," Tsukauchi muttered. He couldn't use his quirk on her, therefore turned his attention to the other two kids.

"Izuku, Sam, where was Danny during the attack?"

"He followed us out, but then ran back into the building when we did. Um, I think he got stuck in the halls at some point."

_" ___Menneki, welcome to the chat!" __Izuku said cheerfully. Menneki startled, but turned her attention to the ground. No reason to pay attention to the story if the detective was ignoring her.

_"___Can I say it, is it safe?"__ _"_

__Yeah, go ahead." __Sam said with a sigh.

_"___Phantom's secret identity?" __Menneki stiffened and began biting her fingers.

_"___Yep." __

_" ___It's Danny, right?" __A collective sigh went through the chat. _"___I won't tell anybody if you don't want me too. I have no quarrels with you three…" __

"What are you talking about?" Eraserhead asked them suddenly. Menneki looked up at the hero and their eyes met.

"Sam is annoyed that Bakugou is being praised for thinking of the fire alarm when it was Izuku who was able to get everybody to the safety of the office in the first place."

"Yeah, what the fuck! We did way more than him and yet Izuku was basically ignored by the teachers!" Sam looked like she was about to smack somebody. The adults frowned. Tsukauchi looked over at the boy he knew to be Bakugou, then back to the kids.

"Izuku was ignored by the teachers? Why?"

Everybody stiffened and looked away. Suddenly Danny's shirt was the most interesting thing in the world while the boys began tugging at the corners.

"Because he's quirkless and they don't think he'll amount to anything," Menneki said with the confidence they never knew she had. "But he'll be a great hero, I know he will!" Tsukauchi couldn't tell for sure if what she said was true, but the fire in her eyes burned brightly for a moment before they were interrupted.

"Menneki!" Somebody yelled. A woman with similar black hair as the girl was hurrying over with a police officer at her side. The woman, who everybody assumed was the girl's mother, pulled Menneki into a hug. "My baby! Are you alright? Are you injured? Who are they?"

"I'm fine, momma, and that's Sam, Izuku, and Danny." She pointed to each kid as she spoke.

"Yeah, well, say goodbye to your friends for now, I'm taking you home." The woman grabbed Menneki's hand gently before looking at the detective and hero. She was waiting for them to argue, but they didn't.

"I'll see you at school? And, um, my family owns a coffee shop not far from here. You go in there quite often, actually, but you never seem to notice me. Except for Izuku, that is."

They all waved their goodbyes and watched the girl leave.

"Now, can you tell me exactly what happened when you got to the office?" Tsukauchi wrote on his clipboard again.

"I went into the security cameras while others boarded everybody up."

"And where was Phantom in all this." Danny looked up at the sky. "I-

_"___Lie to him, I should be able to use my quirk on you for a second," __Menneki said in the chat. She had been stopped by an officer just before leaving the front lawn.

"-I got stuck in the hallway and ended up in the bathroom." Danny didn't change position.

Tsukauchi blinked in surprise and gave Eraserhead a small nod. The hero just sighed and glanced over at the girl who was finally leaving, then to Sam to check her eyes.

"But, Phantom was in the office the entire time?" The detective asked, writing in his clipboard.

"Yes," Sam said, fighting a smile. Danny, however, wasn't even trying. His grin was wide and mischievous.

"He was with us the entire time." A voice said, walking up to the group. Bakugou stared at the three kids, then to the hero and detective. "And he saved our asses."

_**Unimportant but I thought it was fun:**_

_**All Might cookies shaped in his face and hair ear things. (Izuku buys them often)**_

_**Present Mic croissant made of yellow batter with chocolate baked on the outside shaped like headphones (still in testing... It tastes awesome "can I try it?" Izuku whispered over the counter. "Sure."**_

_**Izuku helps her come up with some.**_

_**Grey cupcakes with some sort of sugary, cookie cube on top. ("Cementose!" Izuku cried in excitement, startling an elderly woman)**_

_**Cookies shaped into red wings for Hawks.**_

_**Cup cakes with red, yellow, and orange frosting perfectly spiraled up and topped with an edible yellow crown on top. (Endeavour, Izuku whispers excitedly, trying not to startle anybody)**_

_**She made vanilla cakes with a perfect baby blue frosting layer, then dribbled navy blue frosting over it in every direction. ("Who's this?" "You have to guess")**_

_**Kumai Woods, for some reason, was her favorite hero for a time. She made something she called pumpkin rolls, but tiny and she twisted them into small trees.**_


	38. Chapter 38:coffee shop planning

"It's the 14th? How the fuck is it already the 14th?" Danny muttered as he took a swig of his iced chocolate drink. Izuku pouted across the booth next to Sam, but tried to hide it as he munched an All Might face cookie.

"Yeah, crazy, huh?" Sam said before taking a long sip of her vanilla bean drink.

"Hey, you guys enjoying everything?" Menneki asked before sliding in next to Danny. Menneki smiled and allowed Sam to invite her to the chat. There was a table on the other side of the cafe with a couple kids chatting. They were almost done, though.

_"___The cafe closes in about ten minutes, if you need to stay longer it'll take me awhile to clean everything up." __

_"___We're planning to take Ember down tonight at ten. We might need your help, actually." __Sam looked to Izuku for confirmation, and got a slight nod in return. Menneki just blinked in surprise.

_"___Me? What could I do? I don't even know how to fight!" __

_"___We'll think of something." __Sam winked and disbanded the chat, not dropping any hints to what Danny and Menneki were missing. Izuku didn't seem to care.

"Soooo… yes to staying longer?"

Sam nodded before returning her attention to her drink. Menneki had said earlier that, even though she was their ally, the trio wouldn't get anything from the cafe for free. She did make the drinks with special care though.

The bell on the door told Menneki the other customers had gone, so she hurried to change the sign to 'closed' and get to cleaning. It wasn't until she was walking away that Danny noticed how oddly she dressed outside of school. At the moment she was wearing a black and white striped shirt and a white apron. Her skirt went to her knees and was bright blue, with rainbow tights underneath. The blond cat ear headband that stuck up out of her black hair made Danny smile a little bit.

She was so odd.

Regardless of her odd fashion taste and habits, she was nice enough to let the trio stay at the cafe after the whole fiasco at school only that morning.

Izuku flipped through his tablet as he continued to much his cookie, purposely avoiding eating All Might's weird rabbit hair-ear things. After about ten minutes of silence besides the slurping of drinks, Izuku turned his tablet to show them what he'd found.

"Ember McLain, got her name from her mother's side. Seventeen years old. She went missing five years ago."

The file Izuku had pulled up was a missing person's report. The young girl in the photo was definitely Ember, but something seemed off. It was a photo of a girl swinging on a tire swing hanging from a tree. Danny couldn't help how his eyes saddened when he tried to think of what could turn this happy girl into a villain who would attack adults just for existing.

"Soon after this report was filed…" Izuku fiddled with the screen for a moment and brought up a mugshot. It was a woman with bright red hair and eyes. She was grinning at the camera like a crazy person. "...her mother was arrested. Arial McLain. Her quirk is called 'mind fire,' which lets her make people feel like they're burning from the inside out. She was a villain, as was her boyfriend."

"And I'm guessing the boyfriend had some sort of hypnosis or brainwashing quirk?" Danny asked. After a second more of fiddling, Izuku showed a picture of a man with bright blue hair like that of Ember's, including the spikey-ness. His blue eyes seemed to glow as he glared at the camera. The mugshot said his name was Totsuao Hitoshi.

"So, what's the story?" Sam asked, still staring at the picture. Izuku shifted in his seat nervously.

"Well, uh, it seems Totsuao and Arial were constantly trying to sell their kids to other villains for profit because of their quirks. Ember would always send her younger brother to a neighbor's house to try and protect him, but, eventually, she just ran away with him. The neighbor noticed when they went missing and called the police. An investigation went on, and the younger brother was found and put in the foster system."

Izuku hurried to type some stuff in and another missing person's report came up. It was a young boy, no older than 8, with lavender colored hair and eyes. He wasn't smiling in the photo.

"So, the mom's in jail, but the father escaped and is still a wanted man. Now, his daughter's causing problems quite possibly as revenge for the mistreatment that went unnoticed by the adults around her."

Danny flinched at Izuku's expression. It was determination, but also a bit of pain. Danny opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Menneki asking them all to sit on the floor so she could finished washing the tables.

For a while they talked about Ember's quirk, which seemed to be a mind control one with odd weaknesses. Her villain costume, which was very similar to a rock star outfit, didn't appear to have enhancers or support gear besides her purple guitar. The guitar had knobs on it that let her change how her quirk affected people. One minute they're happy, then attacking. There was still one knob they had yet to see, though.

"So it's your quirks that allow you to be immune to the music, right?" They all turned to Menneki, who had hung up her apron and seemed ready to leave. "You're immune, but are there any flaws to it?"

They all looked at each other before turning back to her. "I mean, your immune for now, but what if she amps up her power? Is there any way for the hypnosis to control you?"

Danny stood, along with his friends, before following the girl to the exit. "If she __could __control me, wouldn't she have done so already?"

Menneki hummed and tapped her cheek in thought. "Did she even know you were there?"


	39. Chapter 39:MemeMan

_**This isn't important bit i just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for the stupid names I come up with. **_

_**Like Yurei (Danny's mom). I thought I was being clever, but it turns out that the name literally just means ghost. **_

_**And Totsuao (I pronounce it totes- oo- ow) was literally a combination of pain and blue. He's basically a bruise.**_

_**And Menneki is just... Immunity. It literally means immunity in japanese. I don't even remember what her first name meant.**_

_**Making names for japanese people are really fun, even if I'm not doing it right.**_

Danny landed on top of a music store with Izuku and Sam by his sides. They stare down at the giant flock of teenagers trying to cram themselves inside.

"You shouldn't be here," an annoyed voice said. The kids startle and turned to see Eraserhead glaring at them. Luckily, the cat and rabbit were already in their suits, including the masks. "You're just kids."

"And you're just an adult, now fill us in on the hero's plans so we can help." Danny crossed his arms and glared back at the man.

"There isn't one."

"Uh-huh?" Izuku muttered. The chat was filled to the brim with Izuku's muttering about everything that could go wrong if the heroes did act. Hostages, killing, revenge. Ember could turn the crowd into an army of innocent people.

"We could at least try!" Danny said, stomping his foot like a kid throwing a tantrum. The boy knew his sister was here, possibly already inside trying to get a good spot to listen to the song.

Song, as in singular. Ember hadn't bothered to write others.

"We've figured out that people chanting her name makes her stronger. The more they chant, the more people she can hypnotise. Her name's Ember McLain."

Eraserhead sighed and walked over until he was standing next to Danny and staring over the edge of the building. "We already know all that."

"Well, did you know that obnoxious noises stop the quirk?"

"Yes, I got that from the fire alarm thing."

"Well… did you know she's doing this to get revenge because she was abused and nobody tried to help her?" Sam spat. She was glaring too, not that anybody could tell. Eraserhead stiffened, his teeth grinding.

"No, I was not informed of this. What happened with her family?"

"Her mom's in jail, dad's on the run, and younger brother is lost in foster care," Izuku supplied. Eraserhead seemed even more agitated as he tapped his foot and crossed his arms.

_"___Distract him," __Danny said to Izuku. In response, the boy word vomited about Ember's quirk and its possible weaknesses.

_"___Take me too, Danny, __" Sam said, taking his hand while the hero's back was turned. The boy turned them both intangible and sank into the ground right as Eraserhead turned back, eyes bright red and hair standing on end.

"Damnit Phantom!"

Both kids snickered as they flew into the store. Cameras were pointed to the stage, broadcasting live to the world. The song was about to start, and the villain's hair was standing twice as tall as it did earlier that day.

"Are you ready?!" Ember cried. The crowd cheered, but one voice cut through the air louder than anybody else's.

"AYE AYE CAPTAIN!" A boy's voice said. There was a wave of laughter, but nobody could tell were the voice had come from.

"Don't mock me!" Ember yelled, momentarily breaking her persona to stare out at the crowd to try and find the voice.

"DoN't MoCK mE." You could practically hear the meme as the boy spoke.

"Who said that! Agh!" Ember screamed into the microphone. She failed to realize that the boy, whoever it was, had provided enough of a distraction for Danny jump down and throw the cameras to the ground. She immediately saw the vigliante and swung her guitar into his gut.

_"___What the fuck Danny. Did you forget that you can turn intangible?" __

Danny's chuckling filled the chat as he tried to stand back up. As Ember aimed her guitar and strung a note, the boy tried to turn intangible. Sound waves, apparently, still affect him because he found himself shooting through a wall and into the street.

"You think you're so great!" She screamed as she ran and lept threw the hall in the wall. "I could destroy you with my eyes closed!"

"So why haven't you?!" Danny yelled back before darting into the sky so her attacks wouldn't hit any buildings. Plus, she had to twist awkwardly to aim and strum her guitar.

"My boss laid claim to you." Upon seeing the boy's startled reaction, Ember laughed and shot an attack that blew him into another building. He hit the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He slid to the ground and sat there gasping for breath.

"Get away from him!" Sam cried, running to stand between the approaching villain and her friend.

"Oh? What do we have here? Lovebirds! How adorable!" Ember mocked. "I have a perfect solution."

She changed the guitar to the third, unknown setting and strung an attack at them. It passed through Sam and into Danny.

"Have a nice life, lovebirds." The villain ran off to climb into a car down the street.

"Phantom? Phantom are you alright?!" Sam said, kneeling down in front of him and shaking his shoulders. The fire alarms in the store went off, causing a panic and stampede of teenagers running out of the building.

"Like the songs of love," Danny mumbled, smiling up at Sam. His green eyes had seemed to glaze over with pink. "Would you like to dance with me?"

Sam had the urge to smack him, maybe that would end the spell.

"Cat! Phantom!" Izuku called as he ran up to them. Eraserhead ran behind him, watching the kids fleeing the scene. A couple kids caught his attention when he stared through the hole in the wall. One was wearing a black hoodie, the other he recognized as Menneki, wearing the weirdest and brightest colors he'd ever seen. They split up, the stranger running with the crowd, the girl hurrying to climb through the wall and towards the group.

"Cat, my darling, my love, why did I ever ask you to hide your beautiful face?"

Sam smacked away Danny's hand as it reached for her mask.

"He's under some sort of love spell type thing. Menneki, do you think you can stop it?"

The girl startled at Sam's voice, then glanced over at Eraserhead. "I-I-I-"

"I, pro hero Eraserhead, give you permission to use your quirk __only __to break brainwashing quirks on the vigilante named Phantom." The hero stared at the girl as she slowly knelt beside Danny and put her hands on either side of his face. She closed her eyes, and her hands began to glow with a faint white light.

A few seconds later, the glaze over his eyes disappeared.

"It's more difficult to dispel a quirk at work than it is to just block one," Menneki said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.

"It's fine, thank you," Sam said as she helped her friend off the ground. The hero was still angry, but he seemed more interested in what Izuku was mumbling under his breath. The third knob was to enhance positive emotions, the second to enhance negative ones, the third to make people love __Ember __.

"You know more about the villain than even we do," the hero said suddenly. Izuku startled, but Danny just snorted.

"Do you mean more than __you __do? You weren't very well informed judging from what you said earlier."

The hero glared. "I noticed you've got a new member of your little group. You probably should've had her cover her face."

Danny turned to where Menneki had been standing not to long ago, only to see she was running away down the street. She met up with a hooded person and they both fled towards the bus station.

"Menneki isn't one of us, don't drag her into it." Danny sneered.

"I could say the same thing to you."


	40. Chapter 40:the neighbor

"Gosh, did I really say that?" Danny mumbled through the chat. Sam, somehow, had increased her distance and was able to hold the chat, though it seemed really faint, to talk with both boys without any parents knowing.

_"Yeah. I swear, for a moment there you were the weird stalker girlfriend." _

Izuku snorted. He was having a sleepover with Danny, sleeping on the floor next to danny's bed on a bright green air mattress with FENTON FUTON written on it in blue. It annoyed both boys, mostly because it wasn't a futon.

_"Who do you think the boy was? The one in a hoodie? _" Izuku asked. He stared up at the ceiling, eyes darting around while he filled the chat with his white noise rambling.

_"Don't know, Menneki seems to be his friend though, so she probably just asked him to help cause a distraction." _Sam reasoned. Izuku pursed his lips, not wanting to argue, but obviously not believing it.

"Danny, is it really okay for us to be sleeping when Ember is out there?" Izuku whispered. Danny felt a little bad, with the date and everything...

"We need our rest. We'll catch her at the show tomorrow at noon." Danny glanced over at the clock over his desk. It was midnight, they were all supposed to be asleep hours ago but they'd snuck out to catch the villain. Er… try to catch the villain…

It took awhile longer to fall asleep, but the next morning, the chat was back up and the kids planned the raid while getting ready for the morning. School was supposed to resume, though they had a hero or two who would stay in case Ember came around again. Izuku was gushing about how he'd found out it was Kumai Woods, but neither Danny or Sam bothered asking how he got that information.

He already had his notebook and a pen in hand when they arrived at school 15 minutes early.

"Can I have- would you maybe sign my notebook?!" Izuku gushed. The hero nodded and signed it, then gave a brief warning to the boy to not bother heroes while they are working. Izuku nodded and hurried into the building, holding his notebook like it was a priceless artifact.

"Thank you! I'll treasure it forever!"

They left just before Menneki showed up, gushing over her favorite hero and asking him what his favorite dessert was so she could make some for her shop.

*"So, the show at noon, we've got lunch break at that time. Do you think half an hour is enough time to take down a villain?" Sam asked.

Danny shrugged. *"Time is weird when you're fighting. It could feel like half an hour, but only be a few minutes, or visa versa."

Izuku rambled on about Kumai Woods' quirk until they finally entered first period. Their homeroom teacher still looked frazzled, his usually tidy clothes wrinkled and hair uncombed.

"We're going to continue with the lesson I had planned for yesterday."

And thus began the most boring day in a while. Everything was made worse by the fact that the trio were impatient for the raid.

"I want in." Bakugou said, blocking the exit of the classroom for the trio so they couldn't go for lunch.

"Wh-what are you… I don't know what you're talking about, Kacchan!" Izuku tried to say. It came out as such a rambling mess that anybody could tell it was a total lie.

Bakugou slammed a hand into the wall. "I mean I know you three are the Phantom Patrol. You plan on disobeying the only rule the school laid out for the day and sneaking to the Ember concert. I know you three have been doing stupid fucking things and beating the bad guys."

"And, what, we let you in or you tell the authorities?" Danny glared at the blond boy. "Or do you think we're big enough idiots to think you'd do anything out of the goodness of the black hole you call a heart."

"Danny-!" Izuku tried to argue, but the pure fury on his friends face made him pause.

"I don't like you, Bakugou. I never will. You're a bully and, as far as im conserned, a villain in the making. No amount of determination to become a hero is going to make me forget the things you've done to us."

The bully did nothing but step aside. "I won't tell anybody, but you better not make me regret it! You understand?! NONE OF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DIE!"

The trio hurried out, leaving the boy to watch after them.

_"Where's Menneki _?" Izuku asked as they snuck into a closet they knew was camera-less. Danny quickly changed form and grabbed onto them.

_"She said she'd meet us there. She had to 'grab something,'" _Sam said. Danny had already turned them all intangible and was flying them through ceilings. They were silent until they landed near the stage. It was set up in a park, the trees offering shade to hundreds of kids who were sitting around and napping. A few of them were tired and ragged looking.

_"Runaways," _Menneki said as soon as Sam let her into the chat. Izuku began rambling questions he'd been trying to answer for a while.

_"How can you be in the chat if you're immune?"_

"Because I gave permission maybe? Anyways, we're over by a park bench, turn around, see us? See me now?"

Danny looked over the crowd until his eyes landed on Menneki in her school uniform with a neon sweatshirt over it. The boy beside her had his black hood up, but his pants looked to be a uniform. He was dressed the same as the night before, and the trio recognized him as the distraction.

"Hey guys!" Menneki said cheerfully as the trio made their way over. She linked her arm with the boy as he stared down at the ground, successfully hiding his face. "I want you to meet my friend! You might know him, or, at least, _of _him."

The boy lowered his hood to show his purple hair and eyes. He looked exhausted, and he didn't smile. "Hitoshi Shinso, pleasure to meet you."

The kids stared in surprise until Izuku broke the silence. "Oh my gosh it's you! I didn't think I'd ever get to meet you! You have an amazing quirk, great for hero work! Are you planning to be a hero?"

Hitoshi blinked a couple times before putting his hood back on. "Yes, I do plan to be a hero. Have you come up with a plan?"

Danny hesitated in answering, so Sam went ahead with it. "We decided on a sneak attack. Eraserhead will be off to the side, and will work on subduing her once we steal her guitar." Sam pointed to one side of the stage, where a man was leaning against a tree and watching all the students, then to another. "Danny will fly from over there, through the stage, grab the guitar, and flee towards where Eraserhead is."

"And what about us?" Menneki asked while Shinso watched a few dozen more kids trickle into the park.

"You'll stand and wait with Eraserhead and help subdue her. Remember not to use your quirks though. Except for you, Menneki, you don't have much of a choice."

The girl nodded and grabbed Hitoshi's attention back before dragging him through the crowds to Eraserhead. Sam and Izuku couldn't do much since they were out of their costumes, so they focused on making sure everything went smoothly. Sam sat off to the side where Danny got ready, and kept the chat open between everybody but Hitoshi (and Menneki because she didn't want to).

She would later say she didn't want to spook him… but that's a lie.

Izuku offered words of encouragement and relayed what they should do if something different happened. If she somehow grabbed Danny, he should turn intangible. If she threw the drums that were on stage or attacked the kids, they needed to protect the civilians.

Finally, after waiting ten minutes, Ember walked on stage, somehow not noticing Eraserhead or the two kids beside him. She didn't really have anybody to play drums or bass guitar like she did at the school, but the instruments remained there.

"Are you ready kids?!"

In response, the crowd cheered "AYE AYE CAPTAIN!"

And then Danny struck. She stepped back and strummed, laughing as he flew past her.

_"Yeah! Ohh- oooohhhh!" _

Danny swung at her, but missed by a hair. Off to the side, Eraserhead was straining and glaring, unsure of why his quirk couldn't stop her.

_"It was- it was September, _

_Wind blows, the dead leaves fall…" _

Hitoshi winced, remembering what she was talking about. Danny just continued attacking, trying to ignore the chanting of kids and the devilish grin on the villain's face.

_"To you, I did surrender, _

_Two weeks you didn't care…" _

Danny swiped at her, Sam blurting out holes in her form and Izuku telling him to focus only on the fighting. Menneki was keeping them all immune, but she can only hold it for so long.

_"Your life goes on without me, _

_My life, your favorite game…" _

Menneki's quirk began fading from Izuku first, and the boy ran off to try and get some distance so he couldn't hurt his friends.

_"But you should- you should not doubt me, _

_You will remember my name…" _

She smacked Danny in the gut with her guitar, throwing him upwards again. She laughed and strummed a note that pushed him over the crowd.

_"Oh Ember, you will remember! _  
_Ember, one thing remains.  
_Oh Ember, so warm tender!

_You will remember the name! _  
_  
_"Your heart, your heart abandoned,

_You're cruel, now bear the shame. _

_Like dead trees, in cold December, _

_Nothing but ash remains…" _

Hitoshi ran on stage, grabbed a bass guitar, and slammed it over her head.

A few seconds later, Ember's guitar was in Hitoshi's hands and she was trying to flee off the stage. Eraserhead tied her up.

"You really think you can hold me? Can't you hear them?!" The girl laughed in his face as the teens chanted her name. Her hair grew higher, like a fire. In curiosity, the hero hovered his hand through it, only to pull back when it stung him.

"As long as _they _chant _my _name, there's no prison in the world that can control me!" Ember laughed more, until Menneki, who's face was covered, put a finger on her chin in thought.

"What if they chant somebody else's name?"

The group went deathly silent until she smiled and grabbed Hitoshi's arm, pulling him onto the stage. *"Crazy Train!"

She took a seat at the drums while Hitoshi readied himself to play the guitar that matched his hair. The crowd went silent as the boy shredded his guitar to get their attention.

"My name's Puppeteer, now who's ready to rock?!"

A cheer went through as the two began playing. Despite the language barrier, and the fact they they didn't have the other instruments, the chanting turned from Ember to Puppeteer. A cry of frustration sounded from just off stage as Ember's blue flame of hair faded to a pixie cut.

_"Ember must've taught him when they were younger," _Sam explained. Eraserhead just blinked, refusing to show his confusion.

_"Who is he?" _

_"Hitoshi Shinso," _Danny replied. He dropped down with Izuku in his hold. Both boys watched Ember while she sat silently on the ground.

Eraserhead activated his quirk on Hitoshi, and sighed in relief to see that the crowd was still cheering. No quirk was being used this time, just honest talent.

_"Who are you?" _Izuku breathed as Menneki entered the chat again. She laughed.

_"I was the neighbor."_

_**Menneki is officially a bridge between all the characters. A colorful, unreadable, extremely unstable bridge, but a bridge nonetheless.**_

_**In case you didnt get it, Menneki was the neighbor of the McLains and Hitoshis that called the police when she noticed that Ember and Shinso were missing.**_

_**I had a perfect line in the story but I decided to change some stuff around so that there's a secret villain making the phantom patrol's lives more difficult. **_

_**Some little facts you might like but will probably never be mentioned in the story unless I change my mind:**_

_**Hitoshi shinso was able to find his way back to Menneki no matter what because the girl convinced her parents to keep the coffee shop. Thats why she runs it, its her responsibility.**_

_**Hitoshi and her tried to start a band a couple years ago because ember taught them how to play the electric guitar and drums, but nobody wanted to join with a brainwasher, so the kids just played with those two instruments.**_

_**Menneki once offered Hitoshi a job and that's why she's working to change her shop into a cat cafe.**_

_**Hitoshi is still in the foster care and isn't treated well. I originally wanted to introduce him with a black eye and busted lip, I might add into that later on.**_

_**The original scene was supposed to be that Menneki would wear hitoshis hoody and hide her face. Then, when they ended the song, ember was going to recognize her brother and curse him out.**_

_**"Why would you better me like this?! They watched us suffer and did nothing! Nobody noticed our pain except for that little girl across the street."**_

_**Menneki has more secrets than any of the other characters in the story, and I'm thinking y'all are gonna hate me when you learn them.**_


End file.
